David Micheluzzi is confident he can stay atop the Australian Open leaderboard after upstaging world No.3 Cameron Smith with a hot first round on the Melbourne Sandbelt.
Victorian Micheluzzi fired a stunning seven-under-par 63 at Victoria Golf Club – equalling the course record – courtesy of eight birdies and only one bogey (at the par-four 10th hole). Micheluzzi leads after the first day by three shots over Matt Griffin (66, Victoria GC) and Josh Geary (68, Kingston Heath, par 72) at four under.
Big names like DP World Tour winner Nicolai Hojgaard was three-under, while PGA Tour winner Lucas Herbert and fellow PGA Tour player Harrison Endycott are among the players at two-under. Adam Scott is one-under.
Smith, the reigning Open Champion, battled in afternoon winds to shoot a one-over 71 that included a penalty after declaring an unplayable lie on the 18th.
After his round, last week’s Australian PGA champion was honest about his poor start.
“I don’t think it was a mixed bag, I thought it was all pretty rubbish to be honest,” Smith said. “That’s as bad as I’ve played in a long time. It was pretty shitty. The course was pretty difficult, the conditions were pretty difficult but still I need to be better than that. Maybe some delayed tiredness, I did feel a little bit foggy and stuff out there at times, but still, it’s not really an excuse. It’s my job to take care of all that stuff.”
But Smith says his dream of winning the Australian PGA, Open double wasn’t over.
“It’s just a bit of a bad day. Just a few things to clean up I think,” he said. “I felt as though the golf got better every day. I still feel like I’m in the tournament for sure but I need to do way better than that, especially if I want a trophy.”
Micheluzzi, who plays plenty of golf at Victoria and even more at Kingston Heath, said his results recently suggested he could maintain his Australian Open lead. He was sixth at the Australian PGA Championship after winning last month’s WA PGA.
“This year. I think Dunhill was the confidence booster I needed,” he said of his T-36 finish at the DP World Tour celebrity pro-am in Scotland in September. ” I was playing with Thomas Pieters and he didn’t play great; I didn’t play great that day but I think he only beat me by a shot. So I’m like, I know I’m good enough to play with these players. It’s just the more experience, the better. Obviously today playing pretty much at your home club, I’ve played here that many times, that it all just clicked. Hopefully it can keep going throughout the week.”
At one-under, former Australian Open winner Scott said he would have to make up ground playing Victoria Golf Club in the afternoon wave on Friday. He shot 71 at Kingston Heath on Thursday.
“I’m going to have to,” Scott said. “I know [Kingston Heath] a lot better than I know Victoria. I’ve played one round in 20 years at Victoria and that was yesterday’s [pro-am]. So, I enjoyed it a lot, but I certainly am not familiar with it. So, I better hit some fairways and greens and make it simple for myself at least tomorrow anyway.”
Meanwhile, Sydneysider Grace Kim continued her impressive year to take the first-round lead in the women’s draw. Kim, who recently secured her LPGA Tour card from the secondary Epson Tour, shot a seven-under 66 at Kingston Heath, a par 73 for the women. She leads by two shots over Major winner Hannah Green (68, Kingston Heath) and two-time Women’s British Open champion, Jiyai Shin. US Women’s Open winner Minjee Lee is two-under.
“Yes, absolutely. I was definitely nervous at the start [of the round] because I haven’t played a tournament in over a month now, since I’ve been back [in Australia],” Kim said. “You’re at home, so expectations and pressures are pretty high. But I just tried to embrace it all and tried to enjoy it.
“I think I took my chances pretty well. I had lots of good numbers, comfortable numbers for my wedge play. To simply put it, I played easy golf. “I was down the fairway and then with my approach shots, it depended on where the pin positions were. That sort of determined whether I was aggressive or not and then I guess with the par 5s [10, 12, 14], I hit the green [in two shots], so [they were] easy two-putt birdies. Things like that, it just gets you in a comfortable mood.”
