SYDNEY, Australia -- When a golfer hits a bunker shot into the water near the 18th green, then has to endure a hospitality host bellowing into a microphone as he plays his recovery shot to suffer a double bogey, one can expect an emotional meltdown. Not in the case of Damien Jordan, who experienced last hole traumas in the first round of The Australian Open on Thursday.
There was no hurling of golf clubs, or temper tantrums... just a brief grimace before he happily thanked his partners and caddies for an otherwise enjoyable round where he ended two over par.
As Jordan will readily tell you, golfing blemishes are in the mini league compared to the trials and tribulations of his previous life.
There are plenty of big names with big stories in this Open field. But none can boast a more compelling background than Jordan, who has used golf to get his life back together after twice serving in Iraq with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment.
He was in Iraq in 2003 for five months as a machine gunner, and returned three years later for seven months as a scout in heavy combat. It was a brutal, often frightening time, and there were ramifications, including a first marriage bust-up.
After leaving the Army, Jordan, who made the Open field by winning the Victorian PGA earlier this year, returned to his boyhood love to overcome the demons, post-traumatic stress and hideous memories of what he experienced during a foreign war.
As the 37-year-old Queenslander told ESPN just minutes after his round: "If I didn't have golf, I don't know where I would be. I really don't. I've had too many mates who have taken their own lives. But I'm one of the lucky ones. I don't have the sadness."
At least a soldier's life would help his temperament around an unforgiving golf course.
"Definitely. I could have got angry there on that last hole," Jordan said.
Instead relative calm.
His first round was certainly eventful. After six holes, Jordan had to beckon his coach Ben Cronk from the gallery to take the bag as his caddie Travis Elliott was struggling with a sore foot, and could not continue.
The next tee, Jordan introduced his new caddie to his partners- Peter Wilson and Andrew Martin. The rest of the round was a bit of a meet and greet, as among the entourage following him around was father Tony and close friend Steve Noyce of rugby league administration fame. Where he could, son would go over and introduce his father and friends to someone else he knew in the gallery.
Jordan was certainly making certain he enjoyed this big moment, as apart from playing in the 2009 Australian Masters, this was the biggest tournament he had been involved in. He was even happy to do menial duties, such as raking the bunkers and taking the flag.
There were ups and downs, two birdies, two bogeys and several exceptional recovery shots, which saw him walk up the par five 18th even par, hopeful that his tournament will continue well past Friday.
He played his second shot into a green-side bunker. The bunker shot went over the green and into the lake. Then confusion over where he could play his next shot. He finally ended up close to a hospitality marquee, with lunch-time revellers munching away only a metre away from him.
That was a big enough distraction, but even worse as he prepared to chip onto a green came the dulcet but loud tones of a familiar sporting commentator who was about to interview a leading golfer in the hospitality tent. Jordan didn't flinch. He chipped on, two putted.
And no complaints.
"You have to get it all into perspective. It's not the end of the world. I had a bad line in that bunker and tried to do too much with it. It wasn't a really good day with the putter today though, as there were too many lip-outs. But that's golf. Tomorrow is a new day."
Then off to see how his lame caddie was.