New South Welshman Lincoln Tighe has got off to a hot start at the Emirates Australian Open in Sydney.

Playing at The Australian, a course he says suits him down to the
ground, Tighe fired 5-under 67 to open his campaign to claim the
Stonehaven Cup in the tournaments 100^th staging.

Tighe says his game has been in good shape coming into the Emirates
Australian Open and today he was able to convert his opportunities.

Winning his first PGA Tour of Australasia tournament last year at the
NSW PGA Championship, Tighe will miss his title defence in two weeks to
attend the final stage of Web.com Tour Qualifying School in the US.

Playing in the afternoon field, Matt Jones closed with a birdie to fire 4-under 67 and trail Tighe by one stroke.

Sitting a further shot back is Geoff Ogilvy, Taiwanese amateur Chun-An Yu and another big hitter Todd Sinnott.

Rounding out the top-10 on the leaderboard on 2-under the card is Brett
Rumford, Stephen Leaney, Alistair Presnell, John Senden and Korean
Joon-woo Choi.

World Number 1 Jordan Spieth opened his title defence at The Australian with an even par round, as did Adam Scott.

The second round of the Emirates Australian Open will tee off tomorrow at 6.45am with Lincoln Tighe on course at 12.50pm.  

For all round 1 scores please visit pga.org.au.

For all round 2 tee times please visit pga.org.au.

Key Quotes:

Lincoln Tighe, 5-under 66, 1^st

"I’m just getting more and more comfortable playing in the bigger tournaments.  My game’s always been there."

"There’s only probably two or three holes out here that you’ve got to
respect, I guess, off the tee, but a lot of the other ones it opens up
where I hit my driver, so it just always suits me here, and I love it."

"I felt even last week at Huntingdale my game was
there, I just didn’t really get anything out of it, but it feels unreal
to be here and to be playing as good as I am."

Matt Jones, 4-under 67, 2^nd

"Today I played very well.  I actually shot 4-under but it could have been definitely better." 

"I had a lot of good iron shots and a lot of good birdie putts out there
but I was very happy with how I played and if I have three more days
like that it will be a good finish."

"I’ve played here a lot, just being a member here so maybe I’ve got a
little more local knowledge of the wind. I enjoy playing in wind most of
the time, so I play well in it." 

Geoff Ogilvy, 3-under 68, T3

"It was a good score. It was a shame about the last. I didn’t hit a bad
shot I didn’t think. I think a lot of people will spin it off the green
in the water there."

"That was really tough, especially when it gets southerly this afternoon, that’s going to be carnage I think, that 9^th hole."

"It’s conditioned as well as any course I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world."

Adam Scott, even par 71, T20

"Unfortunately I made two doubles and that was costly. The rest of the
round was pretty good stuff but that can happen in these conditions."

"It’s tough out there and I let a couple of shots get away from me which
fortunately today didn’t cost me a look at this tournament."

Jordan Spieth, even par 71, T20

"To be honest, I hit two fairways on the back-9, and so when you’re
playing out of rough or bunkers, it’s even harder to control."

"So I really need to drive the ball better. Given the conditions were
tough, I still could have found the fairway or taken less club to make
sure I found the fairway, so decision making was definitely a
challenge."

For more player quotes please visit the PGA Media Centre.

For audio interviews please visit the PGA Media Centre.