Leishman was flying one shot off the lead after collecting four birdies in his first eight holes before fading to a one-over-par 72 in the difficult afternoon conditions at Carnoustie.

"Good start and bad finish. If you hit bad shots around here, you get punished. Unfortunately, I hit a couple of average shots that finished in bad positions," Leishman said.

"You can rack up bogeys and doubles pretty quick.

"The front nine was promising. Back nine obviously wasn't what I was after."

The 2015 runner-up ended the day six strokes off the pace and will battle forecast rain when attempts to revive his hopes on Friday.

"I'm certainly not out of it. I've come from farther back before," he said.

"I'm obviously pretty disappointed at the moment, but it's 54 holes to go, some tough conditions tomorrow by the looks of it with the rain. The course is only getting tougher out there now.

"I'm obviously disappointed but, yeah, positive."

Widely considered Australia's best hope, the world No.18 began his round in style with birdies on three and four before knocking it to a metre to pick up another on six.

After draining a seven-metre birdie putt on the eighth, Leishman threatened to reel in eventual first-round leader Kevin Kisner by the turn.

But a three-putt for bogey on the ninth and double on 10, after finding the water with his approach, abruptly ended his charge.

After further bogeys on the 12th, 14th and 16th holes, Leishman suddenly found himself over par.

"Certainly, I'd like to have the tee shot on 14 again," he said.

"That's probably the only shot I'd like to have again.

"The second shot on 10, it jumped on me, which I wasn't expecting it to. I was trying to hit a little trap draw, and it didn't come out like that.

"When they jump, they always go right on me, and it certainly did.

- AAP