South Korean YE Yang hit out at Royal Melbourne's greens on Wednesday, saying they were trickier than he'd ever faced before.
Yang during Wednesday's practice round.
While his captain Greg Norman has talked much about "home ground" advantage for the Internationals in Melbourne this week, Yang, Asia's first ever major winner, did not seem to share the sentiment.
One incident in particular stood out to the Korean as he practiced on the Alister MacKenzie-designed layout on Melbourne's famed "sandbelt" - his putts repeatedly returned to him on the third hole as he found he could not judge the speed correctly.
"I don't know what Royal Melbourne has done but these are probably the toughest greens I've ever played on," he told the press through an interpreter.
"If you just lose your focus for a split second, you can make bogey or double or triple. You can three-putt easily.
"So I think the overall strategy of play in the golf course is quite fun, but the greens are just monstrous, really.
"I've never really played on greens like this before. So it's going to be very tricky, not just for me but for everyone playing here."
South African Retief Goosen, who won his two majors by mastering challenging US Open layouts, was also said to have had a real struggle trying to cope with the pace of the greens.
"I want to say they are unfair, really," Yang added. "Just a few inches or a few feet away, it just comes like day and night."
There are five Australians in the International team, though one of them, Jason Day, has no experience playing the course as a professional.
Captain Norman will be hoping that the local knowledge of the likes of Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley will give them the edge over the Americans in what is sure to be a genuine test of putting prowess.
Yang is paired with countryman Kim Kyung-tae for the opening foursomes matches on Thursday.
golf365.com