A weary Adam Scott felt better off heading for bed than the driving range after a "disgusting" first round dented his hopes of a second Australian Open title.
Scott somehow scraped together a one-under 71 at Kingston Heath despite racking up four bogeys and a dreaded double in a wildly erratic start on Thursday.
The former world No.1 made only one par in his first nine holes, but ended up in red numbers after also managing seven birdies after some handy work on the greens.
It was particularly disappointing given Scott claimed the Australian Masters on the Melbourne sandbelt course back in 2012.
"Disgusting," was the 2009 Open champion's blunt assessment when asked of his performance in ideal scoring conditions.
"I played really poorly and I putted really well so I mean it kind of makes up for it but when you hit it as bad as that in bad spots, it's hard to have a good score.
"The golf course was playing soft, the putter was rolling, but I just didn't get that many good looks at it and I was scrambling a lot.
"Too many early mornings for me, I think."
Scott said early tee times at last week's PGA Championship at Royal Queensland, where there's no daylight saving, had taken a toll.
"We tee off early every day here in Australia - last week it was 6am three days in a row so an 8am start means you're up at five as well.
"So there hasn't been much sleep with the jet-lag coming back last week and you know, I'm not 25 anymore."
With a second cut being introduced after Saturday's third round to reduce the field to the top-30 players and ties, Scott is in a race to fine-tune his game to make a charge at the leaders.
Asked how he planned to prepare for the next round at Victoria Golf Club, which will also host the final two days, the 2013 US Masters champion was uncertain.
He said he'd only played once at Victoria in 20 years, which was this week.
"I'm going to see whether I can even muster up an idea for what I should be doing - I think could do worse things than sleep at this point," he said.
"I've played one round in 20 years there and Victoria and that was yesterday and I enjoyed it a lot but I certainly am not familiar with it.
"I better get some fairways and greens and make it simple for myself."
