On an opening day at the golf World Cup when precious little went right for Australia, Marc Leishman found a positive.
"I keep going back to it - we're only (five shots) back, there are 54 holes left and we've still got our health," he dead-panned after combining with Adam Scott for a two-over-par 74 which included a solitary birdie.
"We're both healthy.
"It feels very sombre here but it's not that bad."
Spain were the surprise first-round leaders at windy Kingston Heath after Rafael Cabrera Bello's birdie putt on the 18th teetered on the lip for a couple of seconds before dropping into the cup.
Cabrera Bello and Jon Rahm signed for a three-under 69 in the alternate-shot format, giving them a one-shot lead over Americans Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker, French duo Victor Dubuisson and Romain Langasque and China's Wu Ashan and Li Haotong.
Leishman's par attempt on the 18th slid past the hole, dropping the Australians back into a tie for 14th.
Scott said the tricky wind was primarily responsible for the dearth of low scores.
"It's very tough to gauge exactly what's going on out there when it's blustery," said the world No.7.
"I missed my first three greens I was trying to get Marc onto so we got going on the back foot.
"But it's not that bad.
"You only feel bad because you're two over, but (three under) is leading.
"If you were four back after the first round of any other event, you wouldn't care at all.
"Tomorrow is a much-freer format. Hopefully, you can rely on your partner a bit, free up out there and get a few putts to go in.
"We had no momentum and, in these conditions, that's about as hard as it gets - playing foursomes in blustery conditions around a tricky course."
Cabrera Bello put his successful birdie putt on the 18th hole down to "a little bit of help from someone up there (divine intervention) and a bit of backspin".
"Sixty-nine was a great score," said the 32-year-old.
"It was a tough day out there and we both played really good."
Fowler and Walker had the better of their head-to-head match-up against Scott and Leishman.
The Americans went to three under the card following three straight birdies on the back nine, only to hand a shot back at the 16th.
"If you shot anything under par today, you played well," said Walker, the world No.20.
"We battled all day and it really was a battle."
Scott won this event at Royal Melbourne three years ago alongside Jason Day.
The World Cup is a 72-hole stroke-play event, with the 28 two-man teams playing alternate-shot foursomes on Thursday and Saturday and best-ball fourballs on Friday and Sunday.
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