Aaron Baddeley made the turn at Muirfield Village with every right to be steaming.

But despite coming off a double bogey and writing a dreaded four-over 40 on his card the 33-year-old walked to the first tee, having played the back nine first, with an inner calm.

Long-time caddie Anthony Knight reminded his charge Adam Scott won in Texas last week with a similar opening, a fact proving to be just the motivation Baddeley needed to produce a stunning turnaround.

In an all-out assault on Jack Nicklaus’ course, Baddeley produced seven birdies in nine holes, taking a record-equalling 29 shots on the front side to rocket all the way back to three-under and a tie for 11th and within six of impressive leader Rory McIlroy.

While his trusty putter was hot in making two birdies from 23 and 27 feet, his irons and wedges came to play with the other five birdies coming from inside 10 feet.

“To be able to commit to the shots and keep making them down the stretch was great,” said Baddeley.

“It was weird on the back nine, my front nine, because my game felt good I just made a mess of a few holes, especially 18.

“On the other side I wanted to make sure I committed to my shots because my bad shots came from lack of commitment. I just started to trust it and hit a bunch of good ones.”

Baddeley had targeted four birdies to get himself back to level par but wasn’t complaining with the few extras.

“My goal was to get back to even and if I did that I would have thought it was a good day so to go better and keep making birdies and have 29, it’s pretty great,” he said.

“When things get you down and you get frustrated you have to dig your heels in and that was what I was thinking about.”

Jason Day, in his first tournament since the Masters and just his second since February was also battling to overcome frustration.

Playing with tournament leader McIlroy, Day couldn’t buy a putt as he tried to regain his feel for tournament golf, shooting an even par 72 to be tied 45th.

Usually one of the best putters on tour the 26-year-old ranked 111th in the 120-man field in strokes gained putting but tried hard to remind himself of the positives.

“It’s probably understandable given I haven’t played a tournament in forever,” Day said.

“I just said to myself keep doing what you are doing and hopefully soon the putts will fall but unfortunately today they didn’t.

“I felt like I hit it all right but would have liked to play a little better.”