“It was pretty cool,” he added. “I think it’s going to get better as the week goes on. Obviously I’ve got an afternoon tee time tomorrow. I think the crowd might get a little bit louder. But there are plenty of Aussies in the crowd, which is nice to hear.”

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Rory McIlroy, champion in 2014, made birdie at the 1st, was level with Smith on five under at the 14th and another birdie at the last gave him a 66 and second place behind Young in mid-afternoon.

“Overall I’m really pleased. It’s another good start at a major. Three in a row for me now, and I’m looking forward to the next few days,” he said. ” Everything feels like it’s in good shape. Everything feels just sort of nice and quiet, which is a nice way to be.“

Ernie Els, champion in 2002 and 2012, had the crowd hollering when he also got to five under with a run of four birdies in five from the 8th, but he let it slip towards the end and a bogey at the 16th was followed by a double-bogey at the Road Hole 17th.

Nevertheless, the South African was in good heart after a two-under 70. “I haven’t played links golf since last year. I only came in Monday afternoon. I needed to get over the jet lag and never really had a proper practice round,” he said.

“I needed to find my feet yesterday, and that’s what I did, and I felt comfortable today. I played good. I putted nice and played good. I just had that one frickin’ tee shot on 17. Anyway, that’s my day.”

The 48-year-old Brad Kennedy’s sworn ambition is to make a cut at the Open after three failed attempts and he did his prospects a heap of good with a four-under 68.

He came close to a hole in one at the 11th and made birdie at the last to round off what had been a fantastic effort from the Sydneysider, who plays on the Japan Tour.

Lucas Herbert teed off half an hour in front of Smith and was another to relish the hard, bouncy conditions as he put together a two-under round with three birdies and one bogey before parring his way through the back nine.

“I kind of had a target of five-under but it’s not as easy as it looks out there,” he said. “There’s been a lot of scrambling but I’m happy to get off to that start.”

Earlier, Australia’s Min Woo Lee opened up with a commendable three-under 69 at the British Open on Thursday and at one point headed the leaderboard before slipping back with a bogey at St Andrews’ famous Road Hole.

The 150th staging of the Open at the home of golf is just Lee’s second start at the tournament. He was one of the last men in last year after winning the Scottish Open and one of the first to leave it when he missed the cut by two shots.

The 23-year-old from Perth was delighted with his showing after spending part of the night before watching Tiger Woods win the 2000 Open at St Andrews and woke up at 4am when the laptop kicked into life with the sounds of Woods holing a putt.

Lee’s round started badly, too, and he came to grief with his tee shot at the third, which landed in the first cut on the right of the fairway and kicked under the fronds of a bunch of gorse bushes. After much discussion with his caddie he opted to try and stab it out, hit down on it and went further into trouble in the bush. A drop and the inevitable double-bogey six followed.

To his credit Lee made birdie at the next after hitting his approach shot close and two more at the eighth and ninth saw him turn at one-under par despite that early calamity.

“My caddie was a bit hesitant on the shot and thought it was pretty thick but I thought it should be OK but after I hit it I said, ‘Welcome to the British Open’,” Lee said.

“It was a good recovery, the one thing I haven’t been good at is bouncing back from bad shots but an amazing nine-iron at the next hole and I made birdie there and the round kind of kicked off from there. It wasn’t nerves or anything, just a bad drive to make a double.”

Another birdie was to follow at the 12th, where he left a long eagle putt close enough, and went one better with his attempt at the par-five 14th to move to the top of the leaderboard at four-under.

“I hit a driver a little right, but I thought it was going to be pretty good. We were a bit wary about where it was going to end,” Lee said.

“I hit a six-iron but it landed short of the green, and just rolled off to the back.

“I had to wait 10 minutes to hit the putt because the pin was on the side, but I made sure I read that putt good and just rolled in up the hill.”

Lee is vying to join sister Minjee as a major champion after she won a record purse at the US Women’s Open last month. That followed her breakthrough major victory at last year’s Evian Championship, which she will defend in two weeks in France.

Former champion Mickelson, who unlike his fellow LIV Golf rebel Ian Poulter received a decent reception on the first tee, has barely been seen on the course recently but made the turn in one-under.

Poulter did manage to draw some cheers at the ninth, however, when he drained a 162-foot putt for an eagle and was two-under after 17 holes.

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