Playing partner Lucas Herbert, who no doubt many of the fans were just as eager to see up close, had a day out of his own with a 6-under 65 to grab a share of second to headline a pack of players chasing Smith.

Tied with Herbert for second at 6-under is fellow Victorians Andrew Martin and Nathan Page, along with Queenslander Chris Wood.

Another secondary chasing pack has formed with five players tied sixth at 5-under. All Tour young-guns in Harrison Crowe, Matias Sanchez, Corey Lamb, Andrew Campbell and Kerry Mountcastle.

With the heat— and the fly count— down early, most of the players at the top of the leaderboard after Round 1 came from the morning groups.

Playing just his second Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia event of the summer – after a tie for third first up at the Queensland PGA – Smith barely missed a beat.

Going blow-for-blow with Herbert, Smith’s blemish-free card came up trumps, the 2022 Open champion pleased to have found his game early in the week.

“It’s a little bit tricky out there today,” said Smith. “I thought I’d do a really good job of just hitting lots of fairways and giving myself plenty of opportunities. That’s what you need to do around here.

“There’s plenty of wedges and the greens were nice this morning. Obviously being one of the first ones there to take advantage of that was pretty nice.”

Starting on 10, Smith missed an uphill birdie chance on 11 but was able to bounce back quickly with birdies at both 12 and 13 to get his round rolling.

Two more birdies at 15 and 16 had Smith turn in 4-under, already claiming the outright tournament lead that he would refuse to relinquish.

“Nothing really stuck out, there was just no real bad bits. Everything kind of seemed pretty solid,” he said.

Smith’s solidity continued on his second nine with three more birdies coming in, the Queenslander giving some credit to two familiar members of his group.

“It was nice having Sam (Pinfold) back on the bag. I had my coach (Grant Field) there at Nudgee and he was horrendous,” Smith joked.

“It was also nice having someone else (Herbert) there kind of pushing you along.

“We were obviously playing some really good golf together and when you have someone right there, it almost eggs you on a little bit more.”

Despite finishing one back of Smith, it was Herbert who got out of the gates early. But as Smith remained steady, Herbert was forced to bounce back from dropped shots on several occasions.

“If I can hang around Cam’s (Smith) score, most events I’m probably going to be doing pretty well,” said Herbert.

“Pretty happy with that. Had it going reasonably well there through 12, 13 holes and then just stumbled on a couple coming in.

“I felt like my game’s been kind of rusty coming into the week, so I can’t expect too much.

“To walk off 65, pretty happy with that.”

After two early birdies, Herbert made bogey on 13 after his tee shot found the left trees. However, the Victorian got on a run through the middle of his round, making five birdies in eight holes.

Bogeys followed at five and seven but spurred on by his duty to “keep Cam honest”, Herbert finished strong with consecutive birdies.

Herbert’s bogey on seven could have been a lot worse too, after the Victorian’s second on the long par-4 went long left towards the pond.

Fortuitously remaining dry on a patch of mud, Herbert was able to climb in and blast a wedge out without talking a penalty, besides the damage to his new pristine white shoes.

Another Victorian to start hot north of the Murray is Martin, who has just returned from a year on the DP World Tour courtesy of his top-3 Order of Merit finish two seasons ago.

After a missed-cut at Nudgee upon his return home, Martin was pleased to have started strong at Murray Downs.

“I would say it’s been a bit of a battle the last this year. I was actually pretty happy with how it was in Queensland, even though I missed the cut,” Martin said of his game.

“A lot of signs were there, and I was happy, I just needed to see the putts drop and a couple of tweaks with the putter.”

Growing up in Bendigo — as did Herbert — the Murray River region is very familiar territory for Martin who feels comfortable on this week’s layout.

“Growing up down the road, I played a lot of my school and junior stuff here,” he said.

“I’ve said for years, even when I first turned pro, the Murray’s the place to be. There are some great golf courses up here and always in good condition.

“Apart from the flies.”

Photos: Golf NSW