{"id":326904,"date":"2025-12-04T09:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/326904\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T09:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:50:16","slug":"elvis-smylie-leads-the-charge-as-aussie-stars-fire-at-royal-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/326904\/","title":{"rendered":"Elvis Smylie leads the charge as Aussie stars fire at Royal Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elvis Smylie felt the golfing gods were on his side as the young Australian upstaged global superstar Rory McIlroy to set the early pace at the Open at Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

Smylie was the clubhouse leader at six-under 65 as the opening round got underway on Thursday, three strokes clear of the field.<\/p>\n

Grand slam winner McIlroy had a rollercoaster round<\/a> in tricky conditions on the windswept sandbelt course with the world No.2 finishing at one-over with five birdies against six bogeys.<\/p>\n

Of the other tournament drawcards who were met by thousands out on course for the early tee times, Australian guns Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee were both at two-under while Cameron Smith sat at one-under.<\/p>\n

Smylie’s performance continued his stunning trajectory over the past 12 months after winning the 2024 Australian PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

Elvis Smylie\u00a0Photo by Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Playing alongside former British Open champion Smith and former Masters champion, Englishman Danny Willett, on the composite course, Smylie opened with a bogey on the 10th but never looked back.<\/p>\n

He had three birdies in succession between the 13th and 15th and then added a further four on his back nine.<\/p>\n

Playing on the par-four first, which was his 10th, Smylie’s wayward shot over the green hit a spectator before rolling back into position for him to make birdie.<\/p>\n

“The wind was whipping off the left and I just kind of didn’t cut it up enough and I think it hit his foot,” said Smylie, who plays on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it hit him hard fortunately, and then it ricocheted to about five foot and I was able to roll that in.<\/p>\n

“So I think when things like that happen, you just know that the golf gods are on your side for the day.”<\/p>\n

It was a case of McIlroy-mania with the crowds following his group 10-deep with the Northern Irishman delivering for the masses with a first-up birdie.<\/p>\n

Australia’s Adam Scott tees off on the 11th hole on Day 1.\u00a0Photo by Graham Denholm\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But McIlroy, who won the tournament in 2013, found the gusting northerly wind challenging.<\/p>\n

Fellow Masters title-winner Scott’s hole of the day came on the par-five 14th when he nailed a superb approach and then drained a 12-foot putt for eagle.<\/p>\n

“It was a great day — I mean, playing with Rory and Min and fighting to get to the 10th tee this morning with the crowds was good fun,” Scott said.<\/p>\n

“The course held up well even in some of the most challenging wind I’ve probably ever played out here.<\/p>\n

“I’m happy with the end results, I mean, it’s easy to be critical, but maybe I shouldn’t be … it’s very hard to keep it under control out there.”<\/p>\n

Leading Australian women’s player Steph Kyriacou ensured she had a front-row view with the world No.40 volunteering to carry the scoreboard for the star trio.<\/p>\n

Entering the tournament on the back of seven missed cuts and without an individual tournament win for over two years, Smith found some much-needed form.<\/p>\n

The 2022 British Open champion had three birdies in four holes between 14 and 17, but was let down by three bogies on his back nine.<\/p>\n

Other golfers among the early front-runners included Englishman Eddie Pepperell and NSW golfer Corey Lamb, who were both at three under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elvis Smylie felt the golfing gods were on his side as the young Australian upstaged global superstar Rory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-326904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}