An over-par round may not have been the start Rory McIlroy was dreaming of on his long-awaited return to Australia but the World Number Two was happy to "limit the damage" as Royal Melbourne bared its teeth on day one of the Crown Australian Open.
The headlines in the build up have been dominated by two returns: McIlroy's return to the event after 11 years and the event's return to Royal Melbourne following a 34-year absence.
The Composite Course layout is regarded as one of the finest in the world but in round one beauty became a beast as high winds made scoring very difficult in Victoria.
And with that in mind McIlroy, who is seeking an "amazing" end to the year which saw him become a Grand Slam champion, was not displeased with an opening 72.
"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."
He added: "I need to putt better. I can feel myself struggling on the greens a little bit Tuesday and Wednesday just to see reads, they're quite tricky to read in spots, so I struggled with the putting early on today.
"Holed some good ones. I think I was better from outside 25 feet than I was from inside five, so work on that a little bit.
"I made enough birdies, but I just need to limit the mistakes a little bit but it felt OK. It was good to get one round done and not feel like I'm too far back."
McIlroy was out at 7.05am in a stellar group with local heroes Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott and despite the hour, the fairways were lined with spectators.
The Northern Irishman has long spoken of how he regards this as one of the premier events in golf and he was certainly not disappointed on his return to an event he won in 2013.
"Some crowds for seven o'clock in the morning," he said. "It was great. It was a wonderful atmosphere to play in.
"Obviously playing with Adam in Min Woo too. Yeah, it was unbelievable. It was really cool to see how many people were lining the fairways and framing the greens and stuff, so yeah, it was cool.
"It's amazing. I think the welcome has been so warm and yeah, it's been a pleasure to be here and hopefully I could just play a little bit better over the next three days."
