The next generation of Australian golf was the hot topic
ahead of the Emirates Australian Open and today they showed why at Royal Sydney
Golf Club.

Amateur sensation Curtis Luck and Tour rookie Lucas Herbert
each fired rounds of 5-under 67 to lead their national Open after the morning
field.

Luck has had a phenomenal year winning the US Amateur
Championship, Asia-Pacific Championship and the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of
Australasia’s WA Open.

His success was rewarded by a marquee pairing, the
21-year-old West Australian playing alongside Jordan Spieth who opened with a
3-under 69 and Geoff Ogilvy who had one shot more.

"I had two great playing partners in Geoff and Jordan and
they made it a lot of fun for me and obviously I played quite well," said Luck

"Believe it or not, I wasn’t actually that nervous and I
think it was purely because Geoff and Jordan are so casual and so legitimately
nice that we were chatting on the first tee before I’d even teed off.

"So they really settled me down and obviously making a birdie
down the first helps a lot. But yeah, they were great and fortunately I was
able to go down the 10^th feeling pretty good."

At the other end of the scale, Herbert was saved from having
to Monday qualify, given a late tournament invite on Saturday.

"Golf Australia were fortunate enough to give me an invite,
which I’ve really got to thank them for," said Herbert.   

"I was a bit of a cheeky on Twitter, I shared a few tweets on
Friday afternoon with them, maybe it helped, I don’t really know but all I know
is the next day I had an invite.

"I got really fortunate with that, so it’s been nice to take
advantage of it so far.

"It was pretty solid really, but it didn’t feel like that was
the round of my life. I still feel like I’ve got better rounds in me for the
weekend."

Spieth wasn’t as happy with his round, having mastered the
Royal Sydney greens and finds himself two shots off the lead after the first
round.

"I think just the putting, it just comes down to that.
I really haven’t practiced it enough to feel fully comfortable but it takes a
few tournament rounds I think, or hopefully just one, to start feeling more
comfortable on the greens," said Spieth, who was glowing in his assessment of
tournament leader and playing partner, Luck.

"Really, really, really
impressive player, Curtis, real simple golf swing.  

"I overheard him say, "Haven’t hit a draw in a while", to his caddy/coach "But I guess we’re going to go with it today", just kind of understands where he’s at and how to play different
shots, and then around the greens he was spectacular, which is something that
you certainly need to take with you up to the next level," explained Spieth.

"So, he’s certainly got all the tools."

The
World Number 5 didn’t
stop there with his praise of Luck, Spieth admitting that even he learned
something from the amateur who is just two years his junior.    

"I thought he was better composed than I was; no
doubt.  Certainly, I learned a bit from
him today on that side of things. He was smiling the whole time, really
enjoying himself," added Spieth. 

"I got a little frustrated there when I was hitting it
close and just couldn’t capitalise and then he got into some trouble with a
couple of bogeys in a row – could have really been 4-over on those two holes,
and instead he had a birdie on the front end and a birdie on the back end, to
only play him at even.

"He could have shot even par
for the day and instead he turned that into 5-under there in the middle of the
round, so that’s the kind of stuff
that is un-teachable, and he has that."

Firing
4-under 68 in the first round to be one shot off the lead after the morning
field was New Zealander Ryan Fox, Ben Clementson and Adam Burdett.

The
afternoon field are now on course.