As former Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, Ryan Fox, created his own slice of history with an eagle on 16 and hole-in-one on 17, Day delivered a flawless first round of 5-under 67.

That puts the Australian just two back of Rory McIlroy (65), Xander Schauffele (65) and Wyndham Clark (65) and in a seven-way tie for sixth.

Twenty years after his own victory at the famed Stadium Course, Adam Scott is in a tie for 37th after an opening round of 2-under 70 while Min Woo Lee (73), Aaron Baddeley (74) and Cam Davis (79) are all over par through Round 1.

Describing his ball-striking a week ago as “awful”, Day and Como conducted a rare on-site session on Monday to iron out any kinks in the swing.

He hit nine of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation and navigated his way around the Pete Dye masterpiece bogey-free to sit just two strokes off the lead.

“A bit of a dramatic difference between my hitting from last week to this week,” Day said post-round.

“Obviously it’s only the first day but felt like I did a lot of good quality work with Chris at the start of the week.

“I typically don’t like to work during the weeks that I’m playing. I hit it awful last week and I didn’t know what was going on.

“I lost a lot of confidence in my hitting. My targets were way too large. We had a two-way miss going on. When that happens, it’s hard to commit to any type of shot.

“It was nice to be able to capitalise on the par-5s today, keep the 5s off the scorecard and birdie those.”

Thursday’s 67 was Day’s second-best opening to THE PLAYERS since he made his debut in 2010, his best a 9-under 63 that propelled him to victory in 2016.

Starting from the 10th tee in his second appearance at THE PLAYERS, Fox was coming off back-to-back bogeys when he arrived at the par-5 16th.

✅ First hole-in-one on TOUR
✅ First player in @THEPLAYERS history to record back-to-back eagles

Go on then, @RyanFoxGolfer 🔥 https://t.co/5doQVoySMW pic.twitter.com/ByOpfAESha

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 14, 2024

After blistering his tee shot 329 yards into the right fairway, Fox hit his second from 180 yards to inside three feet, converting for eagle to get back in red figures.

Yet that was just a taste of better things to come.

Taking gap wedge at the famous par-3 17th, Fox played his tee shot long and right of the hole, sending the large crowd into raptures when it spun back and into the hole.

“You get up there, most of the crowd probably either wants you to make a 1 or hit it in the water, so I’m glad to be on the right side of it in that respect,” said Fox, who become the first player in tournament history to follow an eagle on 16 with an ace on 17.

“When it landed and came back, I was like, This has got a chance.

“It’s such an iconic hole, and to have that many people there to witness it is pretty cool.”

The only place to watch THE PLAYERS Championship live is on Fox Sports, through Foxtel and Kayo.

Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images