Adam Scott and Jason Day enjoy their lunch more than their US Open first rounds

Adam Scott and Jason Day enjoyed the lunch more than their opening rounds at the US Open.

Adam Scott, left, at Winged Foot with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy

Adam Scott and Jason Day may not be the most accomplished Australians at Winged Foot Golf Club. The executive chef in the six-star joint is a fella by the name of Rhy Waddington, a Victorian whose tucker is all fairways and greens.

If cooking had world rankings he would be top 10, from all reports, and it was to his kitchen that Scott was referring after an opening round at the US Open that was not especially pleasing to the palate.

“It was a nice way to finish the round. Lunch is going to taste a lot better,” Scott said after a birdie-birdie finish left him with a one-over-par 71, six shots adrift of first-round leader, the American Justin Thomas.

“I needed it. I was kind of stalling at the end there. We had kind of ideal conditions out there, I think, for the first round of a US Open.

“I was a little scratchy into the greens when I missed a couple fairways, and you can’t be too critical about your shots into the greens from there. When I was in the fairway, just wasn’t quite dialled in. I putted well today, though. If I can straighten it out with the irons, everything else feels good.”

You could assume lunch would already taste halfway decent. A normal menu from Waddington includes options superior to the social golfer’s fare of a pie and a can of cola. We saw a menu on Friday that included ahi tuna, charred corn, chocolate millefueille, sole florentine … you’d be sending the corn back, eh? I’m not eating this. It’s charred.

Nine Australians were in the Open field. None of them broke par nor the internet. Few highlights reels to speak of. Scott, plus-one. Cam Smith, plus-one. Lucas Herbert, plus-two. Jason Day, plus-two. Marc Leishman, plus-two. Scott Hend, plus-four. Curtis Luck, plus-five. Lukas Michel, plus-10. They held relatively lowly places on the leaderboard — Scott and Smith were tied for 33rd — but they were soothed by only 21 players breaking par, and expectations the notoriously challenging Winged Foot would play especially tough on the weekend.

Smith was two-under for the back nine to avoid complete stomach-churning disaster at the scene of Geoff Ogilvy’s 2006 US Open win. Day’s two birdies were spoiled by a pair of bogeys plus a ragged double-bogey on the par-three third hole.

His response? Meh.

“Hit a poor shot out to the right (on the third) and then made a mess of it,” Day said. “I felt like overall I played some solid golf, just a little bit indifferent. I’m not angry, I’m not mad about it either, or happy about it. Overall we’ve still got three days left, so we’ve got to just focus on that. Conditions are going to be tougher. It’s just try and stay as patient as possible really.”

Unless Waddington, too, was having an off day, Scott’s lunch would have gone down a treat. He said of his preferred course of action from here: “I’d probably take three 70s. I see it playing tougher the next few days.”

Thomas closed with a 25-foot birdie putt to size the lead, while three other major winners lurked within two shots.

Third-ranked Thomas, the 2017 PGA Championship winner, fired a five-under par 65 with a pack one back on 66 including Reed, the 2018 Masters winner who had a hole-in-one, 21-year-old American Matthew Wolff and Belgium’s Thomas Pieters.