Green played with rising Charlestown professional Aaron Townsend, but it was the skills of 20-year-old Belmont amateur Brendan Smith that caught his eye.

Smith is a member of the Australian amateur team and looked on track to shoot the lights out at six under through his first 10 holes.

He struck trouble on the 3rd hole, his 12th, when he hit his tee shot into a hazard on the 398-metre par-four.

A double bogey there and a bogey at the 9th gave him a still impressive opening round of 68.

"He's a very good player. He looks very impressive," said Green, who was playing with the youngster for the first time.

"He's as good as I've seen come out of here for a while.

"He hits it well and he's got a good swing, and he looks like he's going to be a very good player."

Smith was happy but not totally satisfied with his round.

"I hit it brilliantly but I really need my putter to start working," he said. "I missed two greens all day and that resulted in three over."

Green was determined to impress in his role as host of the tournament but made a poor start with a bogey on his opening hole, the par-five 10th.

"Yeah, I thought, 'Here we go, I'm going to shoot 80 and miss the cut,' but thankfully I recovered," he said.

"The greens were a bit slow and soft, which meant the course was set up for good scoring, but it's hard to cut them too much when it's this hot.

"There was definitely added pressure being the host, but it was a good day and there were a few more people out there than I thought, which was great."

Green was unsure exactly what the hosting duties included, but he will be the guest at tonight's dinner.

"I just bought Mum and Dad lunch," he laughed. "That's being a good host, isn't it?"

Green enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere with his wife, Michelle, and friends and family after recently returning home from the most successful of his four seasons on the US PGA Tour.

Victory at the Canadian Open gave Green his first win on the US tour and secured his card for two years.

He also qualified to make his US Masters debut next year.