Action aplenty on first day

The extraordinary escalation of prize money in America has meant a player can make more than a million dollars a year and still operate in almost complete anonymity.

This season New Zealander Tim Wilkinson played his first season on the United States tour and in what is now the exception for a first year player, he retained his playing privileges and made more than enough to slide past the combined career earnings of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.

Wilkinson played well last week at Huntingdale but it would have been a reasonable assumption that amongst all the performance and news print spent on John Daly that less than a handful of spectators actually realized Wilkinson was an American tour player.

He spun around Coolum early on Thursday before the afternoon storms stopped play in a seven birdie 66.

A left hander, he swings the club very solidly in the fashion of the majority of modern players and no one should be surprised at either this round or the likelihood of Wilkinson being around the lead on Sunday.

Tied at six-under is Melbourne man Peter Wilson who finished fourteen quite amazing holes.

He made only two pars on the front nine and birdies at all the rest.

One of those pars came at the par five 8th, a hole that is regarded as a near certain four because the fairway is wide and the hole is easily reachable unless the wind is against.

He then birdied the long 12th before dropping a couple of shots at the 13th, a hole turning left around a lake that can easily cost a couple of shots if the drive is hooked or the second is flared to the right.

Geoff Ogilvy was out in the morning off the 10th tee and an opening birdie and a 12th hole eagle was the sort of start a US Open champion needed to turn in a low round.

In the end he parred the final eight holes for 67.

Richard Lee, the man who looked all but certain to hold the Royal Melbourne record forever when he did 62 a few years ago, also shot 67.

Does anyone imagine someone can do 59 on the Composite Course and take the record from Ernie Els?

Peter Senior is five-under after eleven holes and Mat Goggin was four-under after nine.

Senior is turning into a latter day Kel Nagle, a man capable of contending in big local events even as a fifty year old.

Senior is not quite there yet but he is a relentless competitor who has always loved working hard at his game.

Nagle had a swing that was about as low maintenance as one could imagine and it would be a reasonable bet that Senior still seeks the level of simplicity everybody associated with the Nagle action.

Goggin finally parlayed his brilliant shot making into a good season in America and he is a rival to Robert Allenby as this countries finest hitter.

Goggin can play all the shots but like Allenby he doesn't make as many putts as some of the others.

They can however take some comfort in the fact Joe Durant is at the tour school in America this week.

Durant hit more greens than anyone else on the American tour but no one putted worse.

Players who hit well can only look on in frustration as others find the putting part of the game a simple affair.