Elvis Smylie and Ryan Fox lead at Royal Melbourne as Rory McIlroy makes slow start

There has been much excitement the national open making a return to one of the world’s most revered layouts for the first time in 34 years but it was the weather rather than the Composite Course that stole the show in round one.

And it was Smylie, Fox and Ortiz who tackled them best, carding rounds of 65 to get to six under and lead the way from Cameron Adam, Clement Charmasson and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.

Smylie, a winner on home soil during last season’s Opening Swing at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, overcame an opening bogey with seven birdies and he was the man to set the early target.

Kiwi Fox then made eight birdies to join him at the summit before Mexico’s Ortiz eagled the 17th to catapult himself to the top of the leaderboard.

“It was really solid round, 65 round around Royal Melbourne, the first round of an Aussie Open would be great,” said Smylie.

“I don’t think I need to start pushing and fighting the wind. I think like I did today, just kind of take your moments, knowing when to attack the flags and when to pull back. Obviously I’m not really sure what the conditions going to be the next three days, but everyone’s in the same boat and just try and keep doing what I’m doing.”

Elsewhere, World Number Two Rory McIlroy was happy to "limit the damage" as he had to settle for a level-par opening 72 on his first appearance at the Australian Open in 11 years.

"It's tricky. Very, very tricky," he said.

"Greens are getting firm. It was a good thing they didn't cut them today, it would've been unplayable.

"I felt like I could have shot under par or shot something in the 60s but it doesn't look like anyone's going to get too far away today.

"So I limited the damage and hopefully conditions are a little better over the next few days and could make a run.

"I think the putter was hard and then it's just hard to get the ball close.

"When you can't get it that close and then you're just trying to two-putt those sort of longer putts, it's hard to make up any ground.

"There's a lot of crosswinds and sometimes the wind's so strong, you feel like you can't start it far enough in one direction."