Matthew Griffin admits it will be hard to keep his emotions in check as he attempts to honour his late caddie in the best way possible – by winning this week&aposs Australian Open. Griffin has carried a heavy heart into the tournament at The Lakes after his long-time friend and caddie Peter Beck died suddenly just over a month ago. The Victorian admitted Beck was constantly in his thoughts as he shot to the top of the leaderboard on Thursday with a blistering seven-under 65. The 27-year-old, who has an old university mate now on his bag, fired seven birdies to lead by one stroke heading onto round two. “It was a big shock to lose Peter. He caddied for me in all my Australian Opens up until now,” Griffin said. “Almost on the first tee today I had a little thought of Pete.” “The best way to honour Peter and for what he did for my career is to go forward with it.” “I&aposll probably have someone up there helping me out if I need that putt to drop on Sunday it is pretty emotional.” “You get stuck in the moment. It is definitely something you think about … Pete would have been on the bag this week.” Asked what his long-time mentor would have said to him following his round, am emotional Griffin said: “He would have said, &aposBig Buddy, well done. You are as good as these guys. Let&aposs have a good week&apos.” “He was just always there and great support. He would have been loving it as much as me.” And there was plenty to like about his game on Thursday as he shot a mistake-free round during the morning. Despite dealing with the loss of his mate, Griffin has managed to keep his game together quite well over the last month. He missed the cut by a single stroke at last month&aposs JB Were Masters and now leads the Australian Open. “My game over the last month has felt really good and I haven&apost quite got the results out of the form that I felt I&aposve been in, so it&aposs nice to get off to a good start and really build on it,” he said. “You&aposve got to take advantage of the nice conditions in the morning around here, so it&aposd be nice to be leading overnight.” Griffin said playing with two of Australia&aposs leading players on the opening two days at the Masters – he was paired with Geoff Ogilvy and Stuart Appleby – will ensure he isn&apost overawed heading into round two as the leader. “Although the Masters wasn&apost a result, I think I learned a lot from playing with Stuart (Appleby) and Geoff (Ogilvy),” he said. “The big lead up and the media (attention was a good learning curve), and having a lot of people expecting you to do well and more the expectation you put on yourself, and I think tomorrow that&aposll all hold me in good stead and looking forward hopefully the whole four days.”
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