After dropping three shots in as many holes, including depositing a ball into the woods, Ryan Ruffels recovered to be in contention at the Federal Amateur Open.
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The former Royal Canberra member displayed all his class to claw his way back from a horror start to finish with a three-under par round of 69 on the opening day at the Federal Golf Club on Friday.
Ruffels is four shots behind joint leaders Troy Moses, Benjamin Eccles and Patrick Wilson, who all posted seven-under par rounds of 65.
Playing the back nine first, Ruffels started in the worst possible manner, bogeying the par four, 10th before going wide with his tee shot on the par three, 12th.
Ruffels regained his composure to birdie six of his final 15 holes, including going around the front nine in four-under, to keep himself within striking distance with 54 holes left.
"It was a bit of a rough start, but I was able to fight it back through the round and come up with something decent," Ruffels said.
"I hit a shank on 12 and lost a golf ball, so that was an interesting one. I haven't done that in a long, long time, but I guess that happens.
"I was three over through three holes and knew I had to buckle down a little bit to get it back."
The 16-year-old finished second at last year's tournament and won the World Junior 15-17 boys title in the US in July.
Ruffels finished fourth at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last month and is using the the Federal Amateur Open as a springboard into the Australian Masters and Australian Open later this month.
Playing partner Jake McLeod from Brisbane started out strong with six birdies in his first eight holes before also finishing at three-under par.
The 20-year-old Royal Queensland member had an up and down round, with three bogeys and one double-bogey to go with eight birdies.
"I started pretty good and putted pretty well, but the back nine I didn't hit it so flush and didn't make too many birdies," McLeod said.
"All in all, it's not a bad score."
Play resumes on Saturday from 7am.