Canberra golfers Brendan Jones and Matthew Millar have made a solid start to the New Zealand Open on Thursday.
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Jones, who is using the tournament as a
, finished two-under to be six shots behind co-leaders Zach Murray, Ryuko Tokimatsu and Harry Bateman.
Millar fired a one-under 71 to be a shot further back.
Kiwi Ryan Fox, who won his maiden European Tour event two weeks ago and was Jones' tip to win in Queenstown, finished on three-under.
His body wants to shutdown into a deep, long sleep. But the 32-year-old won't let it until late on Thursday night.
The jet-lagged Kiwi believes his NZ Open chances depend on it.
He signed his card trailing by five strokes, before retiring to the massage table ahead of Friday's second round.
"I'm pretty knackered now, to be honest. I just had a massage and I was about to fall asleep on the table. But I actually felt pretty good on the golf course, I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm this morning feeling pretty good," Fox said.
Having only arrived in Arrowtown from Mexico on Wednesday morning after a 22-hour trip, he's determined to stay up until about 10pm, so his body doesn't get out of whack.
"I think if I go to sleep now, I will be in big trouble," Fox said.
Ranked 68th in the world, Fox opened with a birdie in chilly conditions, before adding three more to his scorecard. His only bogey was on the par three 18th, after his tee shot sprayed left and barely missed the drink.
"I probably would have preferred it in the water. I would have had less for bogey from dropping it than I probably did being left of the water.
"I've been fighting the lefts a little bit the last couple of weeks . . . happy to get away with only making bogey there," Fox said.
Fox, who planned to catch up with friends over dinner to help him stay awake on Thursday night, was joined by fellow Kiwis Steven Alker and Daniel Pearce at three-under the card after their opening rounds.
It was a good enough for a share of 12th when he spoke to media, but the leaderboard is likely to change by the time the late groups get in.
"I let a few slip out there. But three-under is not bad looking overall at the leaderboard. It looks like there are some scores to be had at The Hills," Fox said.
Murray looked anything but the rookie pro he is after his eight-under 63 opening round - his best since turning pro in November - at Millbrook.
Murray could yet be caught by the late groups, but in the meantime is two shots clear of countryman Ashley Hall.
The 21-year-old didn't miss a green, and rolled in eight birdies with his putter to exceed his father's 54th birthday wish.
"He messaged me [on Wednesday] night and said, '65 would be nice, considering I was born in 1965,'. I added a couple of years onto him today with 63. I spoke to him before quickly and he said he doesn't mind. Happy birthday to dad, I suppose," Murray said.
He was steady throughout his blemish-free round, which started after the frigid morning temperature prompted him to change his warm-up routine.
"It was a strange warm-up for me. I hit about five balls and I was like, 'I'm not going to get warm,'. So I went and sat back in the pro shop and waited until the sun came out, and I hit a couple of putts and off I took.
"I do that back home when I'm just playing with my mates, so I suppose I might have to do that more often."
