Young guns outshine the big names on day 1 of the 2016 Emirates Australian Open

Spieth and Scott take a back seat as two 20-year-old’s lead the way; Curtis Luck and Lucas Herbert.

Much of the conversation leading into the first round of the Australian Open this week at Royal Sydney centred around the stunning batch of young Australian players coming through the ranks.

Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy all recognised the new generation were looking very good, with Ogilvy saying he wouldn’t be surprised if one of them won this week.

And if round one of the Emirates Australian Open was anything to go by, then we may just see that prediction come true with young guns Curtis Luck and Lucas Herbert leading the field.

Herbert, who has only been a professional for a year, was set for Monday qualifying until an invitation came his way fired a bogey-free 5-under par 67 to sit in a tie for first place.

Herbert indicated the invitation came after a series of cheeky tweets that may have had some influence on the 20-year-old’s inclusion in the field.

“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,” Herbert said.

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

Amateur Curtis Luck has had a phenomenal run leading into the tournament and despite his amateur status, no one if surprise the 20-year-old is also in a tie for the lead.

The US Amateur, and Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion overcame a couple of back nine bogeys to birdie three of his final four holes for his 5-under par round, outshining his more experienced playing partners Jordan Spieth and Geoff Ogilvy.

“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”

Five players are just a shot back on a bunched leaderboard including veteran Peter O’Malley.

World number six Jordan Spieth only hit four fairways on his way to carding a remarkable 3-under 69. World number five Adam Scott looked out of sorts all day and struggled into the clubhouse with a 1-over par 73, and plenty of work to do Friday to get back in the tournament.

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