Adam Scott has surged towards a rare triple crown of the major Australian golf titles after shooting a course record 62 in his opening round of the Australian Open at Royal Sydney on Thursday.
Scott, who has already won the Australian PGA and Masters tournaments, and needs the Open for the trifecta, birdied each of his first six holes to set up his remarkable round of 10-under in good conditions.
Scott leads the Open after the morning groupings, five strokes ahead of Jason Norris and 1999 champion Aaron Baddeley (five-under). With winds expected to pick up later this afternoon, Scott’s round will be difficult to even get close to today. His round beat the previous course record, set in 2008 by Stephen Dartnall, Mathew Goggin, Ewan Porter, Chris Gaunt and Norris, by two strokes.
Scott’s succession of birdies came to an end on his seventh hole when he was unable to two-putt from about eight metres on the 535m par-5 16th.
The Masters champion drove into the left fairway bunker and was only able to advance his second shot a short distance before cursing himself for not knocking it close with his approach.
He then got up and down from a trap to save par on his eighth hole after shooting over the back on the par-3 17th.
Scott made another scrambling par on the 18th, his ninth hole, after pulling his approach left, and lipped out for birdie on the next hole.
The reigning Australian PGA and Australian Masters champion, who is bidding to join Robert Allenby as the only player to pull off a hat-trick of Australia’s major tournaments in a season, had to wait more than two hours before collecting his seventh birdie of the day.
He knocked his tee shot to a metre on the 143m par-3 sixth and tapped in for birdie before monstering a 305-metre drive to the middle of the fairway on the par-5 seventh.
Scott safely two-putted to get to eight-under and then all but assured himself of the course record – previously shared by Chris Gaunt, Matt Goggin, Stephen Dartnall, Ewan Porter and Jason Norris – with another birdie on the penultimate hole of his round.
He iced his sublime round with another approach to inside a metre on his 18th hole.
Fellow Australian Jason Day, who played with Scott, shot a two-under 70 to be eight strokes off the early cracking pace. Big crowds have already flocked to Royal Sydney to catch a glimpse of Scott, the US Masters champion.
Rory McIlroy, chasing his first victory of the year, teed off at 12.10pm.
