Perth International 2017: Thursday Leaderboard Scores and Highlights

Australian Brett Rumford and England's Mark Foster both carded six-under par rounds of 66 to share the lead following the opening day of action on Thursday at the innovative ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth in Australia.

There are 10 players just one shot back and 11 on four-under par, making for a very competitive leaderboard at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

Here is how things stand following Thursday's play:

#	Nat	Player	Score	R1
T1	AUS	Brett Rumford	-6	66
T1	ENG	Mark Foster	-6	66
T3	AUS	Adam Blyth	-5	67
T3	USA	Casey O'Toole	-5	67
T3	AUS	Daniel Fox	-5	67
T3	JPN	Hideto Tanihara	-5	67
T3	AUS	Jason Scrivener	-5	67
T3	USA	Johannes Veerman	-5	67
T3	AUS	Lucas Herbert	-5	67
T3	ENG	Robert Dinwiddie	-5	67
T3	GER	Sebastian Heisele	-5	67

For the full leaderboard visit EuropeanTour.com.

Perth-born Rumford opened his round in fine fashion. Starting on the 10th, he picked up back-to-back birdies on his opening two holes.

He gave a shot back with a bogey-five on 13, but successive birdies at 14 and 15 saw him go out in 33.

Three more shots claimed at the first, fourth and seventh in a bogey-less second nine moved him to six under, and he will look to replicate his form in Friday's play in front of his home crowd.

Foster also had just one bogey in his round at the 18th—his ninth hole—while he fired birdies at one, four, five, 11, 12, 15 and 16. 

Meanwhile, Japan's Hideto Tanihara made it to six under on the 12th hole as he carded his seventh birdie of the round, per the European Tour:

It looked as though he would also finish tied for the lead but, frustratingly, Tanihara bogeyed the last to drop to five under.

World No. 11 Alex Noren, the highest-ranked player in the field, endured a tough day as he shot a two-over 74 after bogeys at 13, 16 and 18, and a birdie on the 15th.

Meanwhile, 2010 Open winner and defending Perth champion Louis Oosthuizen is very much in touch with the top of the leaderboard having shot a bogey-less three-under round of 69.

Given how tight the tournament is after the opening day's play, the South African will be confident he can be firmly in the mix come Sunday's newly formatted proceedings, per Sky Sports.