Appleby and Hend share lead at Aussie Open

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE
Australian Stuart Appleby withstood winds of over 30mph to shoot a six-under-par 66 and join big-hitting Scott Hend at the top of the leaderboard on day one of the Australian Open at New South Wales Golf Club, near Sydney today.
Having teed off at 12.20pm, just as the wind was starting the lash the revered links lay-out, the Victorian twice held the outright lead before bogeys at the par-4 14th and par-5 18th left him tied with Hend at the top.
The leaderboard is dominated by players from the morning session with Hend posting eight birdies in his blistering 66, while James Nitties and Peter Wilson also capitalised on the benign conditions early on to sit one stroke off the lead after carding five-under 67s.
The in-form Nitties obviously enjoyed the extra attention after being drawn alongside Adam Scott and American John Daly, while Wilson, who started his day on the 10th hole, stormed home with six birdies on the front nine to share second spot.
Australian Scott continued his late-season resurgence by posting a solid four-under 68 to share third place with countryman Stephen Allan and American David Oh.
Jarrod Lyle and Nick O'Hern sit a further stroke back in a six-way tie at three under alongside veteran Peter O'Malley, whose round of 69 was second only to Appleby among the afternoon players.
Daly signed for a respectable 72 after making an eagle on the par-5 eighth - his penultimate hole of the day.
Aberdeen-born Michael Sim's 71 gave him a share of 18th place.

FIRST ROUND SCORES
Par 72
Players from Australia unless indicated
66 Scott Hend, Stuart Appleby
67 Peter Wilson, James Nitties
68 David Oh (USA), Adam Scott, Stephen Allan
69 Jarrod Lyle, Michael Long (Nzl), Michael Brennan, Andrew Dodt, Nick O'Hern, Peter O'Malley
70 Greg Chalmers, Bryce Molder (USA), Leigh Mckechnie, Gavin Flint
71 Chris Campbell, Michael Sim, Tim Wise, Jae-woong Eom (Kor), Terry Pilkadaris, Paul Marantz, Matthew Millar, Marc Leishman, Michael Curtain, Heath Reed
72 Rudi Bezuidenhout, Ki joon Song, Andrew Bonhomme, Scott Strange, Scott Arnold, Steven Bowditch, Michael McGrath, Brendan Stuart (Nzl), Stuart Bouvier, John Daly (USA), Matthew Stieger
73 Won-Kyung Heo (Kor), Kelvin Jones (Nzl), Chang wan Woo (Can), Geoff Ogilvy, Stephen Leaney, Andrew Tschudin, Do eun An (Kor), Peter Senior, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl), Aaron Baddeley, Gareth Paddison (Nzl), Kevin Stadler (USA), Josh Carmichael, Mathew Goggin, Richard Green
74 Rodney Pampling, Peter Nolan, Sam Saunders (USA), Cameron Percy, Brendan Smith, Marcus Both, Jian Hou (Chn), Terry Price, Paul Sheehan
75 Andrew Mckenzie, Michael Etherington, Brett Rumford, Nathan Green, Min-chang Lee (Kor), Simon Furneaux, Stephen Dartnell, Andre Stolz, Brad Kennedy
76 Scott Laycock, Jason Perry, John Senden, Brad Shilton (Nzl), Josh Geary (Nzl), Michael Moore, Adam Crawford, Henry Epstein, Tristan Lambert, Ben Campbell (Nzl), C j Gatto (USA), Kim Felton, Rodney Booth
77 Ed Stedman, Bryden Mcpherson, Mithun Perera, Tim Wood, Steve Jones (USA), Kyong-jun Moon (Kor), Jason Scrivener, Grant Scott, Chang-won Han (Kor), Scott Barr, Tae hee Lee (Kor), Gui Ming Liao (Chn), Anthony Brown, Jae Hoon Jung (Kor), Gregg Mcintosh
78 Paul Gow, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Ryan Haller, Steven Han (Nzl), Rohan Blizard, Richard Moir, Min-kyu Han (Kor), Tom Prowse, Craig Scott, David Bransdon, Sam Brazel, Steven Conran, Marcus Fraser
79 Andrew Martin, Darren Beck, Anthony Summers, Wayne Perske, Ji-Man Kang (Kor), Jamie Lovemark (USA), Jason Norris, Steve Marino (USA), Soon-sang Hong (Kor), Lucas Bates (Can), Seong Ho Lee (Kor), Chao Li (Chn)
80 Kurt Carlson, Ho-sung Choi (Kor), Craig Spence, Craig Parry, Kenichi Sawada (Jpn), Chang-kyu Hong (USA), Brad Lamb
81 Kevin Chen (Chn), Ben Burge, Matt Ballard
82 Sung-kug Park (Kor), Kevin Chun (Nzl), Meng Zhang (Chn), Jian Chen (Chn), Zhi jun Ou (Chn)
83 James Carr, Rowan Beste, Shintaro Iizuka (Jpn)
84 Ye Tian (Chn), Jake Oh
85 Adam Wilcox
86 Damon Welsford
87 In-woo Lee (Kor)
88 Xie Zhi (Chn), Tae-hyun Jun (Kor), Max Kellner (Ger)
89 Richie Gallichan, Qin Xu (Chn)
90 Rhein Gibson, Nathan Uebergang
92 Andrew Good (Hkg)
Retired: Jae-Hae Choe (USA)