Why the elite can still fire on a bad day

World class sportsmen Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja weren’t having a good day at the office yesterday, but still managed to do well.

For the first time this year there were high expectations with Spieth and Day both in the field for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am that’s being played on three courses for the first 54 holes – Pebble, Spyglass Hill, and Monterey Peninsula – with the final 18 holes at Pebble.

World number one Spieth and number three Day both carded battling 1-under 71s at Spyglass.

Spieth said he “couldn’t dial in his wedges”, which left him a string of long putts for birdies, Day said “he was wanting to do well too much” and he couldn’t click.

Both are in a group of 17 in a tie for 65th, but if it wasn’t for the fact Spieth and Day are such hardened professionals, a 77 or worse was on the cards the way they were playing.

This column was written well before Spieth and Day teed off in their second round on the Monterey course. I’ll update their scores later in the morning and you can count on a big improvement – even though they are seven shots off the Chez Reavie pace after the first round.

At the Basin Reserve. it took the incredible talents of Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja to get Australia out of big trouble on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington.

Having won the toss and fielded, Australia dismissed the Black Caps for 183, but were 2-5 in reply in the first 15 deliveries with Joe Burns out for a duck and David Warner for five.

Both Smith and Khawaja – two free-spirited batsmen – were struggling for the next 10 overs in adding just 15 runs, but they were resolute.

Smith was dropped on 18 by Mark Craig at second slip, and that stirred the skipper into more positive action.

He and Khawaja started to click, and while they were never in full control as they normally are, they put on a priceless 125 for the third wicket off 32 overs.

Smith was out caught and bowled Craig when the bat twisted in his hand and he sent a low chance back to the bowler.

But despite not being his usual dominant self, Smith had scored 71 off 112, while Khawaja had contributed 49 off 85 deliveries in a far lower strike rate than normal.

He finished day one with 57 off 96 with 11 fours as he heads towards his fourth Test ton this Australian summer in six digs with Australia 3-147, only 36 runs adrift.