Cam Smith (-1) was the only Australian to break par, while Scottish Open champion Lucas Herbert finished one shot behind Smith at even-par.

Thursday’s play was heavily influenced by Royal St George’s notoriously strong afternoon winds, which many of the Australian’s struggled to combat.

Most players with red numbers alongside their name teed off in the morning, prior to the wind picking up, and those with a morning tee time today are excited to get their turn at playing in calmer conditions.

The unwavering Smith, who is five shots behind leader Louis Oosthuizen, will be looking to surge up the famous yellow leaderboard when he tees off at 10:20am local time alongside Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed.

“It was quite brutal out there this afternoon, to be honest. Windy, gusty. I don’t think the morning boys quite had the gust. When the wind gets up and down like that it’s just tough to read,” the Queenslander said after his opening round of 69.

“Hopefully we get a morning like that tomorrow.”

Brad Kennedy is one over-par in his first start at The Open Championship since 2012 and he is also hoping for more favourable conditions.

“I think it would be nice to have a 50/50 consistency between Thursday and Friday for both sides of tee times,” the 47-year-old said.

“So maybe we might get a little bit of calmness tomorrow, and yeah, if we’re fortunate enough to get a few decent flags that we can go at, I think there’s a good score out there tomorrow morning.”

Australia’s usual suspects of Adam Scott (+3), Jason Day (+5) and Marc Leishman (+5) will also be looking to use their morning tee times to launch themselves up the leaderboard.

Round 2 Tee Times (AEST)

Jason Day (+5) 4:19pm

Aaron Pike (+4) 4:30pm

Brad Kennedy (+1) 4:41pm

Marc Leishman (+5) 5:14pm

Jason Scrivener (+3) 5:36pm

Matt Jones (+2) 6:36pm

Adam Scott (+3) 7:09pm

Cam Smith (-1) 7:20pm

Deyen Lawson (+10) 7:53pm

Min Woo Lee (+4) 9:31pm

Lucas Herbert (E) 11:15pm