Jason Day leads the Aussie contingent at the US Open after the first round was played at Chambers Bay.

Teeing off alongside Jordan Spieth and Justin Rose, Day came
through the turn 2-under-par. He added a further two birdies to his card before
coming unstuck at the treacherous par-3 15^th.

A double bogey could have been the undoing for Day but a
positive mental attitude saw him bounce back with a birdie at the 16^th
before he gave it right back to the course at the par-3 17^th.

Ending his round with a par at the 18^th, Day put
in an impressive performance in the first round, shooting 2-under 68 to be tied
7^th on the leaderboard.

"The biggest thing is to let it go. It would be great to
have finished 4-under. But I’ll take anything under par," said Day.

"This is a marathon this week. It’s physically and mentally
demanding. It’s a grind out here."

" There’s a lot of guys that have come into this day already
frustrated at the course, not only how long it can be and how tough it can be,
but you can get some good breaks and bad breaks."

Day is just three shots back of round one leaders; Henrik
Stenson and Dustin Johnson who he played a practice round with on Monday.

"It’s all about the attitude. You have to have a good
attitude in U.S. Opens," added Day.

"It’s easy to play yourself out of the tournament real quick
here. Whether you make a mistake, you just have to keep pushing forward and
pushing forward and can’t give up."

"But it’s only going to get tougher and tougher as the week
goes on and everyone knows that."

Former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy is the next best of the
Australians turning in a score of 1-under 69 to be T14.

However most impressive was Queensland young gun Cameron
Smith. In his Major debut he showed the world his immense talent carding an
even par round to be T26.

Smith showed his mental grit when he recovered from a double
bogey, early in his round, on the par-4 13^th with two consecutive
birdies and another on the 18^th.

He is joined at T26 on the leaderboard by Adam Scott who
this week is reunited with caddy Steve Williams.

Marcus Fraser is the next best of the Australians at 1-over
the card while Kurt Barnes in his US Open debut and John Senden are a further
shot back.

Rounding out the Aussie contingent on 3-over the card and
T79 on the leaderboard is Marc Leishman.