MELBOURNE, Dec 8: Australia’s Nick O’Hern shot four birdies and two eagles to card an eight-under-par 64 and grab the early first round lead at the Australian Masters on Friday.

O’Hern, who teed off on the 10th hole, made an eagle three on the 555-metre 14th then followed up with another on the 490-metre seventh at Huntingdale Golf Club in suburban Melbourne. He also notched birdies on the third, sixth, 12th and 17th holes.

Leading scores:

64 - Nick O’Hern

67 - John Senden, Robert Allenby, Adam Bland, Steven Conran

68 - Peter O’Malley, Bradley Iles

69 - Paul Sheehan, Dean Alaban, Nathan Green, Martin Doyle

70 - Bubba Watson, David McKenzie, Kim Felton, Wade Ormsby, Paul Casey, Oliver Fisher, Ricky Schmidt, Brett Rumford, Alistair Presnell, Jarrod Lyle, Marcus Cain, Richard Backwell

Selected:

71 - Daniel Chopra, Ryan Palmer, Martin Pettigrew.—AFP