Open Championship 2026: Seven-strong Aussie contingent all fail to break par on opening day<\/a><\/p>\nt was one of few blemishes with the flatstick for the 27-year-old who has worked with coach Ritchie Smith on changing back from a cross-handed putting grip to a more conventional grip just two starts back.<\/p>\n
It worked a treat at the Genesis Scottish Open where he finished second and he was sixth in Strokes Gained: Putting on Thursday to give himself a fighting shot going into Round 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bit of grit and bit of patience,\u201d was Lee\u2019s immediate summary, who will start day two in a tie for 39th.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I hit it like that a couple years ago or last year, I would have probably made a lot more bogeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to grind it out and shoot level-par.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t think I had a great putting stroke under pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was something physical and mentally that wasn\u2019t right, and I just needed a change, some sort of a change to get me out of that funk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great. It\u2019s nice to hit putts \u2013 still a little nervous \u2013 but hit putts that go in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early bogeys at two and six had Herbert on the back foot but the Victorian responded in typical bulldog fashion with birdies at 11 and 17 to join Lee, John and Kobori at even par.<\/p>\n
He converted a birdie chance from 18 feet at the 435-yard par-4 11th and then got up-and-down from just short of the par-5 17th, narrowly missing a final birdie try from 15 feet on 18 to end his opening round.<\/p>\n
Like Herbert, Kobori did his best work on the Royal Birkdale back nine.<\/p>\n
Playing in his second Open Championship, the 2023\/2024 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner went out in 2-over 36 but was even par just two holes later courtesy of birdies from 12 and eight feet respectively at 10 and 11.<\/p>\n
He gave one back after coming up short at the par-3 12th but holed a 20-footer for birdie at the controversial par-3 15th to get back to even par. A dropped shot at 16 would be erased by birdie at 17, his eagle putt from 15 feet coming up just short.<\/p>\n
Reigning Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner Travis Smyth responded after a nervy start to shoot 1-over 71, Adam Scott and Kiwi pair Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier each shooting 72.<\/p>\n
Major champions Jason Day and Cam Smith both felt as though their 3-over 73s didn\u2019t reflect the quality of their play.<\/p>\n
Day lamented some short game carelessness that cost shots on the back nine while Smith is looking forward to an earlier start and fresher putting surfaces in Round 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly feel like I hit it pretty good today,\u201d said the 2022 champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust need to get a metre in the fairway rather than out of it, and I think it\u2019s a different story.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The greens) were getting pretty baked out and a little bit bouncy. Felt like you couldn\u2019t really be aggressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking forward to some fresher greens, hopefully see some putts go in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Round 1 Australasian scores<\/p>\n
T39\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Min Woo Lee\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 70
T39\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kazuma Kobori (NZ)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 70
T39\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lucas Herbert\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 70
T39\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cameron John\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 70
T60\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Travis Smyth\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 71
T85\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel Hillier (NZ)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 72
T85\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ryan Fox (NZ)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 72
T85\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adam Scott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 72
T106\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jason Day\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 73
T106\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cameron Smith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 73<\/p>\n
Round 2 tee times AEST<\/p>\n
4:08pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cameron Smith
6:03pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lucas Herbert
6:25pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adam Scott
7:53pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cameron John
8:52pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel Hillier (NZ)
9:03pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ryan Fox (NZ)
10:53pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Travis Smyth
11:31pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Min Woo Lee
11:53pm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jason Day
12:48am\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kazuma Kobori (NZ)<\/p>\n
MORE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A switch to his putting grip and a heady mix of grit and patience has kept Min Woo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,172572,755,176607,5507,5488,44,2503,10913,85],"class_list":["post-808202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cameron-john","tag-golf","tag-kazuma-kobori","tag-lucas-herbert","tag-min-woo-lee","tag-news","tag-open-championship","tag-royal-birkdale","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808202","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=808202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}