American young gun Jordan Spieth came out blazing at the Emirates Australian Open to lead after the first round.

On a day which challenged the field, Spieth fired a 4-under 67 to have a one shot lead over Aron Price (NSW) and Scott Gardiner (NSW).
"When we came out this morning it was misty and the wind was blowing hard," said Spieth. 

"I knew that it was going to play difficult but once the conditions started to clear for us; there was certainly a score out there."

A tournament draw card Spieth enjoyed his first round of golf in Australia particularly playing with crowd favourite Adam Scott.

"I had a great time, the patrons here are fantastic, there was great support for all of us but obviously Scotty was the favourite," add Spieth who outscored Scott by seven shots.

"When you know he is having a bad day, a great champion like he is, to see how positive he remains on each shot." 

"I know that I wouldn’t have handled it the way he did and that is part of what I need to learn going forward." 

While he holds the round one lead, Spieth is aware there is a long stretch of golf to be played on a tough layout.

"It’s a challenging golf course; there is trouble around every turn if you’re not hitting it in the right spots," added Spieth.

"My approach tomorrow is that it’s Friday, it’s about keeping a consistent round and don’t worry about the scoreboard." 

"It’s about greens in regulation out here. I did a really good job of hitting greens in regulation even when I wasn’t on the fairways today."

Scott Gardiner provided the highlight of the day, a hole-in-one on the par-3 11th for which has was awarded a new Lexus NX 300h F Sport car worth AU$73,701. 

"My aunty actually said, "Scott, I don’t care what you do before, but just get a hole in one on number 11 and get a car for your aunty," said Gardiner who opened with a double bogey on the 10th. 

"I was pretty fortunate that I played the first hole so poorly that I got to hit off after Ryan (Fox). 

"I saw he hit a 7-iron just over the back of the green, I’m not quite as strong as him so it made me hit a 7-iron as well." 

  "I hit it and I was just happy to see it not land on sand, I turned away and I heard Ryan say, "Go in the hole" and I didn’t even see it go."

"To win a great car like a Lexus – I had an opportunity to buy one about 10 years ago so it’s great to get my hands on some keys, because it’s a great automobile."

Rounding out the top-10 on the leaderboard at 2-under 69 are defending champion Rory McIlroy, Adam Crawford (QLD), Richard Green (VIC), Brendon De Jonge (ZIM), Andrew Tampion (VIC), Achi Sato (JPN) and Geoff Drakeford who is making his Professional debut this week. 

"I didn’t really get much going, I made a lot of pars," said McIlroy.

"The conditions were pretty tricky. It was tough to get the ball close to the pins with the wind and these greens being quite firm as well." 

"I thought anything under par today was a decent score and it was nice to birdie the last and shoot something in the 60s."  
"It puts me right there going into tomorrow."

The second round of the Emirates Australian Open tees off at 6.50am with Spieth on course at 7.05am.