MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Lucas Herbert shot an 8-under 63 Thursday at a soggy Victoria Golf Club, including an eagle on his last hole, to take the first-round lead at the Australian Open, with fellow Australian and 2022 British Open champion Cameron Smith two strokes behind.
The Australian Open and Women’s Australian Open are being held concurrently — using alternating tee times — and with level prize money for the second consecutive year at two Melbourne sand-belt courses, the par-72 Kingston Heath (par-73 for the Women’s Open) and par-71 Victoria.
Japanese amateur Rintaro Nakano and American Ryggs Johnston shot 65s at Kingston Heath and were tied for second, with Smith tied for fourth after his 65, including six birdies in a row, at Victoria in the men’s event which is co-sanctioned with the European Tour.
Pumps worked well into the morning to clear lakes of water left by another overnight Melbourne rainstorm, and preferred lies were in play.
Herbert said it was “sacrilegious” that players could spin their balls back to flags on greens used to being “concrete” on the famed sand belt in southeast Melbourne.
“It’s great condition-wise, it’s just soft and slow, which I know they wouldn’t want here,” he said. “It’s probably sacrilegious to come to the sand belt and try and land it past the hole, it’s just not the way these courses are designed to be played.”
Conditions are unlikely to change from a hardness perspective, with more rain forecast for Saturday.
Smith said he may need a score of about 20-under par to win his first Australian Open.
“The course is definitely gettable,” Smith said. “I mean, there’s the greens are soft, and there wasn’t much wind out there this morning. So a lot of those par fives played really quite short . . . if it stays like this, it’ll probably be close to 20-under (to win) if there’s no wind, which is crazy.”
Elvis Smylie, who won last week’s Australian PGA championship at Royal Queensland, where Smith finished second, shot 70 Thursday at Victoria.
Australian Su Oh and South Korean amateur Hyojin Yang were tied for the Women’s Australian Open lead at 7-under. Oh had a 66 at Kingston Heath and Yang a 65 at Victoria.
Hannah Green had a 67 at Kingston Heath and was in third place.
After the respective cuts are made, play on Saturday and Sunday will be only at Kingston Heath, site of the 2028 Presidents Cup.
LPGA Tour regular Minjee Lee shot 74 at Victoria while her brother, PGA Tour player Min Woo Lee, had a 71 at Kingston Heath.
Defending champions Joaquin Niemann and Ashleigh Buhai both shot 73s at Kingston Heath.
Wenyi Ding, who gave up his spot in the Masters from winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur and is playing as a European Tour rookie, shot 71 at Kingston Heath and was tied for 35th.
