The U.S. Open lived up to its notoriously difficult reputation in the opening round as Shinnecock Hills proved a tough beast to tame for the Australian and New Zealand contingent.

It was more a matter of surviving than scoring with a stubborn wind gusting across the links course causing havoc for some of the biggest names in the game, the marquee group of Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy shooting a collective 25-over par.

Of the 11 Australasians in the field, New Zealander Ryan Fox got off to the fastest start, his round of 3-over 73 has him four shots off the leaders at 1-under par.

Fox narrowly missed an eagle after a trademark 340-yard booming drive off the 5^th set him up with a great approach onto the green. His eagle putt slid past but he was able to convert for the second of his two birdies for the round.

He’ll no doubt be disappointed with a bogey on his final hole but is in a solid position heading into the second round.

Aaron Baddeley and Marc Leishman are just one shot further back from Fox at 4-over 74. Baddeley started with a birdie on the first hole however stumbled on the front-9 slightly with two bogeys and a double.

He was able to rally with two birdies on the back-9 for his 4-over total while Leishman recorded just a single birdie with a brilliant bunker shot on the 16^th to match that score.

Kiwi Tim Wilkinson and Australian Matt Jones are next best placed after rounds of 6-over 76 while West Australian Jason Scrivener had a round of 8-over 78 along with Adam Scott who drained a 25-foot birdie putt on his final hole to take some confidence into round two.

David Bransdon, Jason Day and Cameron Smith all had 9-over 79 while Lucas Herbert had a tough day finishing with a round of 13-over 83.

England’s Ian Poulter sits at the top of the leaderboard alongside Americans Dustin Johnson, Russell Henley and Scott Piercy at 1-under the card.

The No. 1-ranked player in the world had to muster all of his skills in the opening round of the U.S. Open to enjoy a share of the lead.

Johnson, who won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, was accurate off the tee, hitting 10 of 14 fairways. He lowered his score to 3-under by holing out from a greenside bunker for a birdie on the par-3 11th, but lost some of the momentum with a pair of bogeys coming home.

“I did a lot of things well,” Johnson said. “I hit a lot of good shots, hit a lot of fairways and had a lot of birdie putts. “

Johnson watched some of the morning round and saw the high scores on TV. He understood it was going to be a grueling afternoon.

“You want it to play tough—maybe not quite this tough—but it was a day where you had to play good golf if you wanted to shoot a good score,” Johnson said.

It was believed that the morning wave would have an advantage, but windy conditions quickly dried the course from Wednesday’s rain and made the greens difficult from the onset. Only two players from the morning were able to break par—Piercy and Poulter.

Poulter nearly made a hole-in-one on the 11thon the way to his best opening round in the U.S. Open.

“(Thursday) is just a good day,” Poulter said. “And I’ve got three tough days left.”

Piercy didn’t expect to be among the opening-round leaders, either. He walked off the course after four holes of his practice round Wednesday and told his wife that he’d probably be home for the weekend. Then he ordered a pizza and re-evaluated his mental approach to the first round.

“You know it’s going to be frustrating, so you’ve got to get the right mindset,” Piercy said. “I think last night was a big regroup for me and today it showed.”

Henley was slowed by a double bogey on No. 10 and finished with a bogey at 18 when he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker.

“I felt really in control of my game,” Henley said. “Off the tee, I felt like I was going to hit it right where I was lined up. Gave myself a chance to have a good round, hit a lot of fairways.”

Defending champion Brooks Koepka shot 75 but wasn’t overly concerned.

“I think everybody was just trying to grind it out,” he said. “It’s a U.S. Open. You can shoot, whatever, 5-over today and shoot 1-under tomorrow and be just fine going into the weekend. So, I’m not too concerned.”

The conditions created some high scores.  Rory McIlroy shot 80 to match his highest score in a major. Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson shot 77, and Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth shot 78. Jason Day shot 79.

Tiger Woods opened the day with a triple bogey and a bogey. He seemed to settle down until taking back-to-back double bogeys at Nos. 13 and 14, including a four-putt, and finished with a 78.

“It’s tough out there, but I shouldn’t make two doubles and a triple, four-putt,” Woods said. “For most of the day I just didn’t putt well.”

Matt Jones and Ryan Fox will be the first of the Australasians to tee off for round two tonight at 8:45pm AEST, live coverage begins on FOX SPORTS Australia 501 at midnight AEST.