Of his early start, Lee explained: “I was up at four. I went to sleep, well I tried to sleep at 8 last night, went to bed early at 8:30, but I can’t complain. I wasn’t even the first group! A couple of years ago, I was in the first group at St Andrews, and that was like a three o’clock wake-up,” he recalled, adding with a laugh: “I don’t know – it feels as if it should be illegal!
“But it’s The Open. It’s supposed to be difficult, but I had a good finish – so lunch will taste a little bit better.”
Outright leader Daniel Brown carded an opening-round 65 to finish six-under-par.Credit: Getty Images
For Smith, though, the chances of a second Claret Jug are over. Nothing went right from the start as the Queenslander found thick rough with his opening drive that led to a bogey, then ended up with a seven at the second after driving out of bounds.
Completely out of sorts playing alongside leader Lowry, the 30-year-old, coming off three top-10 finishes in his last four LIV events, recorded nine bogeys alongside his triple, but at least showed champion’s spirit by birdieing two of the final three holes.
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“Just a bad day, really. I mean, if you had have told me yesterday that I was going to shoot that, I wouldn’t have said that was possible,” shrugged Smith, whose 80 matched that of Australia’s amateur debutant Jasper Stubbs, who qualified by winning the Asia-Pacific Championship at Royal Melbourne near his home.
Jason Day, the top-ranked Aussie who finished runner-up last year, ended with a 73 which he called “a decent start”, adding: “I’ve just got to kind of clean up the mistakes a little bit and get myself back in the tournament.”
Elvis Smylie, the 22-year-old son of former Aussie tennis star Liz Smylie, launched his major debut with a five-over 76.
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