The former Open champion has made no secret of his desire to win his national open and he made a strong start at The Victoria Golf Club today, ending two shots behind leader Lucas Herbert.

His second round will be at Kingston Heath on Friday afternoon where a huge crowd is expected to see how low Smith can go.

“I mean if it stays like this, it probably would be close to 20-under if there’s no wind, which is crazy,” Smith said when asked post-round what score might win this week.

“Usually around here if you get off to a nice start, anywhere in those kind of high singles to maybe 10 or 11 under is a really good score.

“Hopefully it firms up a little bit and it’s a bit of a tougher test.”

After a sluggish start, Smith was +1 through his first four holes but he rattled off six straight birdies either side of the turn to move up the leaderboard.

Back-to-back birdies on his last two holes, the eighth and ninth at Victoria, left the Ripper GC captain in a good mood.

“I didn’t do really much wrong today,” he said.

“It was a bit of a slow start, obviously being so early, getting up so early.

“I think just a bit draggy there at the start and then finally woke up, the coffee worked and I got on a good roll there through the turn.

“I didn’t do too much wrong from probably the second or third hole.”

Playing with Smith, new BMW Australian PGA champion Elvis Smylie slipped to +3 after seven holes before fighting back to post a 1-under 70.