Richard Green scores hole-in-one at Australian Open

THE first thing Richard Green did after hitting a hole-in-one at Royal Sydney was spin around to see what he'd won.

As usual, it was nothing. There was no car, no speedboat and no big novelty cheque so Green had to be happy with an ace that kicked him up the to third on the Australian Open leaderboard.

"They're always nice to get," Green said.

"I had a bit of a quick glance around to see if there was a car or something there but no, unfortunately. In New Zealand I was a day short of $100,000 or something. But anyway, it's just the luck of it, isn't it?"

After a steady opening round, Green had moved into the top five when he arrived at the 143m, par-three sixth. Using a brand new set of clubs, the left "flushed" an eight iron and watched it bounce twice and curl into the hole.

It was his fourth professional ace.

"I had one in the New Zealand Open years ago, one in the American Express Tournament I think it was, one of the world golf championships in San Francisco probably about nine years ago now is the last one and then this one is the one I can remember. I think the other couple that I've had have just been in social golf," Green said.

There is a Volvo is up for grabs for a hole-in-one at the tournament but at the 14th, and only on the last day.

But Green, who plays on the European Tour, was more than content with a round of 66 that felt as clean as he'd hit the ball in years.

"It's nice to build a bit of confidence from hitting good shots again," Green said.

"It was a very nice day. I've been struggling a little bit of late with my game and changed a few things, changed my clubs, changed my driver; just about everything this week and it's just started to show some good signs again. I haven't hit shots like I have the last two days for a long time, probably about three years. It's building, confidence is building."