Reigning Australian Amateur champion Quinn Croker battled through rainy weather in the foothills of Japan’s Mt Fuji and dealing with a driver that wouldn’t co-operate to emerge as the leading Australian after day one of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.

Trying to become the fifth Aussie to claim the AAC title and earn a trip to the 2025 Masters Tournament and The Open Championship, Croker started with an even-par 70 to be five shots behind the leader, Indonesia’s Randy Bintang, at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba.

It could have been even better for the Queenslander who was 3-under after 13 holes and saw his tee shot on the finishing hole sail right, leading to a lost ball and a double-bogey seven.

“The driver put me in too many bad spots. For me to just have one bogey through the first 17, I was happy with that,” Croker said.

“I was on the fairway maybe a maximum of five times today.

“They were mainly going right. I know what it is but it’s very hard to fix it on the course.

“If you’re not getting off the tee okay around here, you’re in the trees.”

Croker is a shot ahead of three other Australians - Lukas Michel, Phoenix Campbell and Tony Chen – who all opened with 1-over-par 71s.

A sequence of brilliant short game shots helped Michel bag three birdies in four holes on a crazy run around the turn.

“I got up and down for birdie on my ninth hole (the par-5 18th) and then got up and down again from no man's land in a bunker on my 10th hole,” Michel said.

“Next hole I holed a really tricky little flop shot from the rough for a birdie and got up and down again from about a 30 or 40 yard bunker shot on the next hole.

“I was like ‘I might be better off missing greens than hitting him at this rate’.”

After making his way to 2-under, three bogeys in his last six holes left the four-time AAC participant in the clubhouse, and out of the worst of the day one weather, at +1.

“I think I could easily have shot two or three or four-under today just if I'd finished off a little bit cleaner. But yeah, I think my game is there. I just need to tune up a little bit before tomorrow,” he said.

Phoenix Campbell’s first appearance in Australian colours started with a birdie on his first hole, but he was left rueing a bogey-bogey finish.

“I was super disappointed to finish like that,” the reigning Queensland PGA champion said.

“Six back from the lead in amateur golf can change very quickly. I gave myself a lot of chances today and I feel like as the week goes on, I’m only going to get better.”

The highlight of Chen’s first day as an Australian team member was a chip-in with a hybrid for birdie on the 17th as he battled back from two double-bogeys on the front nine.

“It’s great to belong to the team and playing for something special,” the US-based 22-year-old said.

Further down the field were defending champion Jasper Stubbs (Vic) and Queenslander Billy Dowling at +2 and WA’s Connor Fewkes (+4).

The halfway cut tomorrow will include the top 60 and ties and currently sits at 3-over.

Australian scores:

70: Quinn Croker (Qld)

71: Lukas Michel (Vic), Phoenix Campbell (Vic), Tony Chen (Vic)

72: Billy Dowling (Qld), Jasper Stubbs (Vic)

74: Connor Fewkes (WA)