The hotly anticipated Emirates Australian Open teed off at The Australian today with a stellar line-up which includes the World Number 1.

While the course has been buzzing with names like Spieth, Scott, Clarke and Westwood, New South Welshman Lincoln Tighe has blitzed the morning field to take top honours after round one.

The 26-year-old from Wollongong stole the limelight from the marquee players as he turned in the most impressive performance of the morning.

"It’s great to have all the overseas guys come out and support the event. This is probably the strongest field I’ve seen here for a long time," said Tighe.

"Even to look at the names on the pro-am sheet for Wednesday, I walked over to see if I was in, because normally my category just slots into the pro-am and I didn’t get a start."

"I had a look and thought no, I probably don’t deserve to get a start."

While he may not have been on course yesterday, Tighe handed in a scorecard today which featured seven birdie and two bogeys.

Tighe’s 5-under 66 was an impressive performance on a challenging layout with the temperature soaring and a hot wind blowing in Sydney.

Taking it all in his stride, Tighe exuded a quiet confidence believing that his game had been in shape for a couple of weeks now and today he was able to capitalise.

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

"Even last week at Huntingdale I felt my game was there, I just didn’t really get anything out of it."

"It feels unreal to be here and to be playing as good as I am."

Renowned as one of the biggest hitters on Tour, Tighe enjoys competing on The Australian layout with it working to his advantages.

"I’ve always loved this place, probably because it suits me down to the ground," added Tighe.

"I know I can carry a lot of the bunkers off the tee. There are only probably two or three holes out here that you’ve got to respect, I guess, off the tee," added Tighe.

"A lot of the other holes open up where I hit my driver, so it just always suits me here, and I love it."

Sitting just behind Tighe on the leaderboard after the morning field of the first round is Geoff Ogilvy and Chu-An Yu on 3-under the card.

World Number 1 Jordan Spieth opened his title defence with an even par round.