Spieth finds going tough in 1st round of Australian Open

Like Tighe, defending champion and world No. 1 Jordan Spieth will hit off on Friday afternoon (AEDT).

The 26-year-old, a professional since 2011, started on the 10th with a triple-bogey seven and closed with a quadruple-bogey eight on the ninth.

Australian Tighe holds a one-shot lead over compatriot Matthew Jones as a result of his impressive 66.

Thousands of spectators turned up early, many to follow the fortunes of Spieth in his defence of the STONEHAVEN Cup he won previous year with a brilliant closing round 63 before going on to complete a stunning 2015 season featuring two major victories.

Given the tricky conditions on Thursday – only 18 players finished below par – Scott should comfortably make Friday’s cut but knows he needs to play a lot better to remain in contention.

“The toughest part is when you have the crosswinds and you’ve got to pick what shot to play, because you can use the same club and it can go 30 yards difference in the air”.

Scott slipped perilously to two-over par for the championship following a lacklustre second-round 73 in relatively easy morning conditions at The Australian Golf Club. I was actually two clubs off when thinking [the wind] was actually helping when it was hurting.

“China was really wet and the Tour Championship was very tough playing in the rain”, Spieth said, referring to the rainy HSBC Champions tournament he played in Shanghai earlier this month. “I believe that. There would be no point in my setting lofty goals to just settle for something less than I have already done”.

“I holed a few long ones today and didn’t miss the short ones like I did yesterday”, Colsaerts said.

The 28-year-old, who opened with a one-under par 70 to be in a share of 13th place, made the turn in two-under par 34 to be only four shots back from the lead in a share of fourth place.

“So boy, it was a round that could have been and that made it so frustrating as I found myself finally getting into a nice rhythm as I was hitting fairways and giving myself opportunities but I just couldn’t quite gauge the wind”. “No, I didn’t think it would launch the type of year that we’ve had, because each piece needed to come together to get a bit more comfortable in the bigger situations”.

Last week’s Masters champion Peter Senior was harsh on himself saying he was “ashamed and embarrassed” by his nine over 80.

“I feel like I really only had a couple of weeks this year where I was playing that top level golf”, said Scott.