Six years later, not much has changed — Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club is continuing to confound some of the world’s best players.

Given nearly perfect scoring conditions, with rain-softened greens and fairways and barely a breath of wind, no one could go deep on the menacing Southwest Marine Drive layout in Thursday’s first round of the $5.2-million US RBC Canadian Open with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

Kris Blanks of Jupiter, Florida, shot a 3-under par 67 early in the day and the score held up as Shaughnessy’s gnarly rough and postage-stamp greens proved to be a considerable challenge.

Only 21 players in the 156-man field broke par 70 and many went a whole lot higher than that.

It’s a similar story to 2005, the last time the Open was played at Shaughnessy and Mark Calcavecchia won with a score of 5-under. The course played tough then and no seems to be expecting anything to change now through Sunday’s final round.

And for many players, especially some of the guys who have been around the block a time or two, that’s just fine.

“I love hard golf courses,” said veteran Woody Austin, who is one back after his 68. “It’s nice, especially in this day and age where the best guy does not win on a regular basis. It’s the guy who can putt his butt off who usually wins. It’s nice to play Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver courses like this where you are going to know who is playing the best. You’re not going to allow a guy to hit it wherever he wants to and just putt his butt off. I think that’s great.”

Matt McQuillan of Kingston, Ont., finished the day as the low Canadian, shooting an impressive 2-under 68. He is one of 10 players just a shot out of the lead.

South African Ernie Else doesn’t seem to mind, either. The three-time major winner, who is just one back after his 68, suggested he has no problem with the way Shaughnessy is set up.

“It is what it is,” Els said. “You know, it’s Canada’s national Open and I’ve played in many a national open, Scottish Opens, British Opens, South African Opens. You know, there is a way a national open should be played. It should be played as tough as possible, on a very stern test, and that’s what you’ve got here.”

Blanks seemed to feel right at home Thursday, which makes a certain amount of sense.

After all, his wife is from White Rock, B.C. Blanks met Tami Dougan, a former junior golf star in B.C. while both were playing mini-tour Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver in Florida.

“We met not too far from where we live right now so we have come full circle,” Blanks said.

His round was highlighted by an eagle three on the par-5 seventh hole — his 16th of the day — when he holed a shot from a greenside bunker.

“I saw (Greg) Chalmers hit an unbelievable flop shot from over by the cart path and seeing his ball land I saw how soft it was in that area and it gave me a little more confidence in how I could go ahead and fly it in the air and it wouldn’t run away,” Blanks said. “I was able to get it down there and fortunately enough it went in.”

It was one of those days where players seemed to have to hit those kinds of shots to go low. Austin eagled the par-4 16th from 121 yards with a pitching wedge to get it to 3-under. He gave that shot back on No. 18 when he couldn’t get it up and down from just short of the green with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

“I had 9-iron out and my caddy said you can probably get wedge to the front and that would probably be the smarter play because past the hole is sloped away,” Austin said. “I swung as hard as I could at a wedge and hit it as pure as I could and I holed it. One hop, boom. Barring more rain, Shaughnessy probably played as easy as it’s going to get.

“We had perfect scoring conditions today,” Blanks said. “The rain this morning softened the greens up a little bit. I felt fortunate to get the ball in the fairway a lot today and was able to capitalize on the good shots I hit.”

Finding Shaughnessy’s narrow fairways, which average just 26 or 27 yards wide, is the key to scoring and surviving.

“The course was long this morning,” Masters champion Charl Schwartzel said after his 1-over 71. “The ball started going a little bit further when the sun came out, but I got off to a bad start and it was just a struggle for me. This course demands very good shots. You need to be in the fairways and even when you get in the fairways the greens are small and you need precision iron shots. It’s a good test.”

Young stars Rickie Fowler and Anthony Kim are among those two back at 1-under with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

“I got some rest and that was good,” said Kim, who tied for fifth at last week’s British Open. “Obviously coming from overseas you just have to get your legs under you and I did a better job of staying patient today and hopefully I can do that (Friday).”

Several of the tournament’s big names struggled Thursday and will need to rebound on Friday to survive and play the weekend. Defending champion Carl Pettersson and two-time Canadian Open champ Jim Furyk both shot 74. Australian Stuart Appleby and England’s Paul Casey both fired 76.

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