Captain America cops heat as Internationals relish a home game

"Get in the bunker!"

The cry rang out across the first tee at Royal Melbourne's composite course, and everyone laughed, because Patrick Reed had just struck his first shot of the Presidents Cup, a handsome blow with the driver down toward the reachable first green.

And the funniest thing happened.

Patrick Reed was on the receiving end of some heckling on day one.Credit: Getty Images

It did go in the bunker 300 metres away, scurrying up toward the green but then taking a hard right into the sand.

Cue the humourists in the crowd, wedged in five-deep all down the first fairway on either side.

"Be careful, Patrick," said one, as he nestled his feet down into the sand at one.

The jibes came all day long, right from the opening tee shot when Reed was roundly booed at the introduction.

"The excavator," yelled one man on the first tee, mimicking a call that was used in one of the practice rounds.

"Your caddie got 14 clubs and a shovel?" said another.

As he walked up to the fourth green, a guy in the corporate area perched up high offered: "Did you read the rules, Patrick?"

Reed brought it upon himself.

His action in brushing sand away from the back of his ball during the tournament in the Bahamas last weekend brought him a two-shot penalty that he did not dispute. At worst, it was bare-faced cheating, although Reed himself has argued that it was unintentional, being part of a practice swing.

He certainly showed barely a glimmer of remorse.

Which left the man known as Captain America as the obvious target for crowd abuse.

The International players virtually called for it. They've been saying for months that they wanted a home game. On Thursday, they got what they wanted.

Reed was impervious to it, as befits a John McEnroe-esque figure whom teammate Justin Thomas described as being in a "group of guys in the world that can play really well pissed off". There was no shushing the crowd, as he famously did at Gleneagles in 2016 during the Ryder Cup, largely because he did not play especially well until late.

At the first three holes, his ball found bunkers, which brought out all the comedians. Yet the jokes became a little lame. Even the Fanatics were subdued, with a bunch of them in the first tee grandstand.

Their best songs were about other players – Killing Me Schauffele to the tune of Killing Me Softly as Xander Schauffele began his match, and CT-CT-Pan to the tune of Macho Man.

Australian crowds just don't do the high moral ground thing that well. Which is the way it is when your national men's cricket team has sandpapered the ball to make it swing, not so long ago – and as good as denied it straight afterward.

By the time Reed hit a nice short iron shot into the magnificent par-three fifth, there was even a flutter of applause from the grandstand behind. This for the enemy! In Europe, he would have been smashed.

In truth, it was a great day for golf, with a big crowd sending roars right across the course and creating a wonderful atmosphere, and the whole Reed controversy took a back seat. Royal Melbourne was in her pomp, with the greens running fast but not ridiculously so as they did in 2011, when the putting surfaces turned a purple-brown hue.

That was designed to hobble the Americans, and it backfired, because that US team had some incredible putters.

This time, the course was playable but tricky in the fluky southerly breeze. Plenty of birdies were made. Tiger Woods, who hasn't played in this country since 2011, was magnificent, making birdie at his first two holes and then chipping in for another at the fifth. He'd have six birdies in his win with Justin Thomas, who was made to feel redundant – quite something, since he's No.4 in the world.

The Internationals as massive underdogs have given themselves a chance, picking up their first day-one lead since the 2005 event.

As for Reed, he lost his match with Webb Simpson to Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Pan.

On Friday, it's foursomes, the Achilles heel of the International team for no rational reason, where they play in pairs with one ball, teeing off alternately. Then again, history means nothing to most of these Internationals.

There are no scars on them. Which makes them dangerous, as day one shows clearly.