Norman misses cut in own event

For a man who'd just missed the cut at his own golf tournament, Greg Norman was in a pretty good mood. "I'm not that disappointed to tell you the truth - my head just wasn't in it today," Norman said.

"When your head's not in it, the disappointment factor is not as high as when you're really into it and you play badly.

"I don't feel that way - I don't feel concerned about my golf game."

Norman has now missed the cut two years running at his signature event in Australia but denied he was distracted by the mechanics of being tournament host.

"I don't worry too much about the nuts and bolts, I leave that to other people but a lot of the little things I do are taken care of during the practice rounds.

"To be honest, I don't actually like playing the golf course here all that much. It's always very windy and we just just didn't get a break from the wind."

Norman said the players who went out this morning in idyllic conditions - no wind and soft greens - would be in for a tough time when they start in forecast blustery, hot conditions tomorrow afternoon.

The best of those who teed off this morning was 19-year-old Australian amateur Adam Scott.

At one stage Scott strung together an uninterrupted streak of six birdies and an eagle from the eighth to the 14th hole on his way to a 10-under par 63, which equalled Frenchman Jean-Louis Guepy's course record.

He described the effort as the best of his life.

"That's as good as I've played. I've had one other 10-under in the United States but I think I played better today and this is a harder, bigger course," Scott said.

After starting the day two-over par, Scott got back his first shot at the par-5 second hole.

But he didn't start to get warm until the eighth, a 501m par-5, where he made birdie.

A pin-point approach at the par-3 ninth set up another birdie and Scott was one-under for the tournament.

"Coming to the ninth green, all I was thinking about was making the cut but then I started not missing the greens and when I made eagle at the 14th I knew it was something special."

He made regulation pars at the 15th and 16th and added another birdie at the par-5 17th to cap his round.

In total, Scott hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation and took 28 putts.

Norman played a practice round on Wednesday with Scott, whose very first tournament win was as a 12-year-old in a Greg Norman-sponsored junior event, and the Shark saw the talent was there.

"You may not see that someone can shoot 10-under but you can see they can play - he is just a very good player.

"It's another sign of a lot of raw talent we have in this country," Norman said, referring to the fact Aaron Baddeley, Brett Rumford and Brad Park have all won tournaments this season as amateurs.

Scott finished the day in equal seventh place at eight-under, five shots behind rampant Welshman David Park, who added an eight-under 65 to his opening 68 to be 13-under.

Scotland's Andrew Coltart - Norman's tip to win the richest tournament held in Australia - is second at 11-under with Australian Lucas Parsons a shot back at 10-under after a round of 66 today.

Peter Senior is one of three players tied for fourth at nine-under, while Rumford is alongside Scott at eight-under.

Baddeley was even par 73 today and two-under over-all.

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