Matt Jones and Adam Scott lead the Aussie contingent at The
Open but on a day where Phil Mickelson was working his magic they are left back
of the pace.

Australian Open Champion Matt Jones was amongst the lead
early in the first round as he made the turn at Royal Troon at 5-under the
card.

However Troon’s back-9 bit back, Jones recording back-to-back
double bogeys on the 11^th and 12^th holes to drop down the
leaderboard.

A birdie on the 18^th steadied the ship and Jones
was pleased to have posted an opening round 2-under 69 despite being six shots
behind Phil Mickelson who recorded the best individual round ever played at The
Open and beat the course record of 64 jointly held by Greg Norman (1989) and
Tiger Woods (1997) by one stroke.

"I’m ecstatic. I played great. I had two, maybe three bad
swings all day, and that’s going to catch you out on these type of golf
courses. When you miss a shot here, you’re going to get punished, and I was,"
said Jones.

"It’s in my nature to keep fighting. It’s not like I give up
easily. To birdie the last is great. It gives me some confidence going into
tomorrow."

Joining Jones as the leading Aussie is Adam Scott who had a
much calmer day on course with his scorecard featuring three birdies and just
one bogey.

"Considering I felt I wasn’t on point today, just one mental
error wasn’t bad because I really could have compounded them into some bad
scores," said Scott who is feeling confident after his opening round.

"It’s just a good feeling coming to The Open knowing that I
can play Open Championship golf."

"I feel like I’ve done everything but win it over the last
four years, and it’s just the last little hurdle we’ve got to get over. It’s
good to know you can contend and play. I’ve been doing that for four years
straight."

"That’s what I want to do the next two days. Put myself in with a chance come
Sunday. It will be fun."

Scott Hend was the only other player of the 11 strong Aussie contingent
to be at par or better. The Queenslander, who just secured his place in the
Australian Olympic Team, was level with the card at the end of his round.

Hend’s Olympic team mate Marcus Fraser, Rod Pampling, Greg
Chalmers and Australian PGA Champion Nathan Holman are all 1-over the card
after the opening round.

World Number 1 Jason Day had a grinding day on course, four
bogeys off set by just two birdies for a 2-over 73 which places him and T94 on
the leaderboard.

"Every time I hit an iron I kept on missing everything left.
That’s not the miss I’ve been having lately, so it kind of caught me off guard.
It was kind of hard to trust the swing from there," said Day.

"It’s 2-over par on a pretty easy day out there. It is a
little frustrating, but I think if I can just understand that the next few days
are going to be very difficult, the scores are probably going to start coming
back."

"If I can just play good, solid golf and get the ball in
front of me, I think I can inch my way back in."

A further shot back are Marc Leishman and Nick Cullen while
Steven Bowditch rounds out the Aussies with an 8-over the card round.