Clarke three off the pace in Australia

Australia's Steven Bowditch matched Choi Joon-woo's six under par 66 to share the lead with the South Korean after the opening round of the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum.

On a day when a host of players, including Jason Day, threatened record scores and fellow Australian Adam Scott staged a remarkable recovery to stay in the hunt, it was firstly Choi and then Bowditch who capitalised most on the favourable conditions.

One shot adrift are Australians Aaron Baddeley, Andre Stolz and Aaron Townsend, as well as American Bubba Watson, while Steve Conran and Marcus Fraser are among those tied for seventh two shots back.

Open Champion Darren Clarke, Day, Robert Allenby, American Rickie Fowler and South Korean Y E Yang all lie at three under par, while Scott, Stuart Appleby and defending champion Peter Senior all finished with 70s.

Day began in blistering fashion with birdies at five of his first seven holes and after grabbing a sixth at the ninth, was still at five under at the turn having also bogeyed the eighth.

However, he lost momentum over the second half of his round to finish three under par.

After a terrible back nine that featured a triple bogey, a double bogey and a pair of bogeys that left him five over, Scott blitzed the front nine in 30 shots with six birdies to lie two under.

Scott's woes stemmed largely from three visits to the water in four holes from the 11th.

Clarke reached four under at one point only to make back-to-back bogeys at the fourth and fifth, but a birdie at the sixth left him in touch with the leaders.