Australian Open: Opening round throws up bonanza of plot lines

The opening day of a good golf tournament is a little bit like a Christmas present.

Jason Day tees off the 14th at The Australian Golf Club yesterday. Picture: AAP

The opening day of a good golf tournament is a little bit like a Christmas present. You have a decent clue to what it might be by the shape under the wrapping paper. Experience tells you it could be books you have read or shoes you won’t like.

Had Christmas been at The Australian Golf Course yesterday you could have ended up with a tractor, giraffe or banana lounge. A whole lot of everything and anything.

There was the young pro in the clubhouse at eight-under, a course record. The former world No 1 who at one stage was nine shots short of the lead but untroubled and positive, then the major winner who settled in quickly, nestled close to the top of the board.

And then, of course, the player with a backstory Walt Disney wouldn’t believe.

That is golf’s wonderful quality. You need superstars banging the big bass drum to alert the public but players of mediocre quality can throw up superior stories. There is a compelling yarn evolving on every hole and every day. It is why an unexpectedly large crowd turned up at seven in the morning yesterday to see Jason Day tee off in the opening round of the Australian Open. That and the fact that they hadn’t seen him play in this country for four years, a period in which he won the US PGA and was No 1 in the world for a week short of a year. It is a hiatus the 30-year-old is sensitive to.

As he said: “It was amazing actually, the support that we had here today. Sydney crowds are usually pretty big, but it was a good size today. It was nice to be able to play well in front of them too, because obviously that’s why they pay the money, to come here and watch good golf.

“I made a couple of mistakes out there with some swings, but made, I think, eight birdies, which was nice and finished at five-under, which is a good start to the week. I’m definitely looking forward over the next few days after getting some rest tonight and get back into it tomorrow.

“It was exciting to play. The crowds were terrific out there. Our whole group played well and it’s really nice to be able to kind of feed off each other when the whole group (Geoff Ogilvy 69, Rod Pampling 68) is kind of playing well as well. Hopefully we can bring some more people out tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

The lead was grabbed early and retained all day by 22-year-old Cameron Davis. Such is the quality of the kids being produced by the national golf strategy, Davis could not be sure whether an eight-under par round of 63 — a course record — was the best of his career. That is not to say the kid was boasting but he won the 2015 Australian amateur championship — at The Australian — and he is a sweet player. That the rest of the world produces golfers who are even sweeter strikers explains his inability to secure a ticket on any tour, though he is in the thick of it to grab his card at the US Tour qualifying school.

LEADERBOARD

That Davis holds the course record slightly embarrasses him. He has it because shamefully the course has been manipulated to accommodate the nuclear ball professionals now use. That traditional courses are being gelded to compete with technology that can blast a golf ball from one suburb to another is madness but, presumably, economic wisdom. New bunkers, tees pushed back. So Davis holds the record, knocking off Jordan Spieth’s final round 63 which extinguished the hopes of Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy in the 2014 Open.

“It was a good round, I don’t know about course record,” Davis said graciously. “Jordan Spieth wouldn’t be too happy. No, whatever the score ends up being today I was going to be happy. For it to be that low, I’m over the moon.”

As good as Australia’s next wave of young players promise to be — “I know there’s me and at least another five or six guys that are really coming through strong at the moment” is how Davis puts it — they really have no meaningful feel of the future they face. Certainly Davis didn’t when he headed to Canada to work for a spot on that country’s secondary tour, a feeder to grander things.

“It was a big step up from the amateur golf, you know, shooting even par at an amateur tournament you’re doing all right, you’re not going to drop too far off, but even par in a tournament like that (on Mackenzie tour) and you’re dropping straight down the leaderboard. So it was good to get into a good insight into what level of golf you have to play just to compete and make the cut.”

Day had not heard of Davis — who had? — and only knew him as the lanky kid on the practice fairway. For Day that is the tyranny of a distance rarely travelled. The stories didn’t stop. Anthony Quayle, who had a share of the lead at seven-under through 10 holes faltered to finish four-under. He learnt his golf on a course he fashioned at home with baked bean cans as cups. He fluffed his chances of a higher finish with a 37-shot back nine.

On the 18th tee Spieth was neither in nor out of contention until his last shot. He moved one shot closer to Davis with a four-metre birdie putt for a one-under par 70. It is nicely poised and thank God Spieth and Day agreed to play this Open.

After his round Day stayed behind for a generous length of time: “I’m just trying to play really good golf. I have my bad days and people walk off going, that guy’s a you know what, and I have my good days where I’m around, and sticking around and trying to give everyone the time that I can. I have my flaws, I have my good things and my bad things about me, but I’m just like a normal person.”

No need to think Day is not genuine. He seems engaging. He wants people to enjoy his golf. He tries to make it accessible.

Jordan says he “stole” the birdie on the last. Yet, with his hopes burning bright, it might just be the shot that sees Australia give him the Stonehaven Cup. For a third time. That is no good. Hat-tricks are something required a little further north.