American Talor Gooch has fired a flawless 10-under 62 to take the opening round lead of the inaugural LIV Golf tournament in Adelaide.
Gooch carded 10 birdies at the Grange Golf Club on Friday to be four shots clear of Englishman Richard Bland and South Africa's Dean Burmester.
The 31-year-old Gooch went on a hot streak of five consecutive birdies in benign conditions at the sandbelt course in Adelaide's west.
Australia's Cam Smith posted a three-under 69.
Fellow Australian Matt Jones reached four under before slipping late to finish even par and compatriot Marc Leishman was one under.
Only 10 players in the 48-strong field finished over par.
American Shiwan Kim had a torrid time - he posted a 10 on the par-5 7th and wobbled to a 12-over 84 - while Bryson DeChambeau struggled to two over.
Spain's Sergio Garcia finished four under and Brooks Koepka is three under.
Phil Mickelsen carded two under and Dustin Johnson posted one under at a tournament which struck early spectator troubles - many of the 35,000-strong sell-out crowd missed the start because of massive queues to enter.
Thousands of fans were in a line at least a kilometre long outside the one entrance gate when players teed off in a shotgun start.
Johnson's Aces GC top the team leaderboard entering the tournament, the first LIV event on Australian soil.
Charles Howell III, who won the season-opening tournament, leads overall standings from Koepka, who won at the last LIV event.
The individual winner at the Grange will collect $US4 million ($A6m) of the total purse of $US20 million ($A30m).
© AAP 2023