Smith, who is two-under and seven shots behind leader Will Zalatoris, sliced his drive on the second hole to the right of the fairway and it sailed onto the adjacent seventh where Wise was unfortunately struck without the ball bouncing.

Thankfully Wise was able to complete his round after he experienced some ringing in his head for about 20 seconds before feeling back to normal again. Smith and his group loudly called “Fore” but the blustery conditions made it difficult to hear, Wise’s playing partner Joel Dahmen said.

It was a day where things just did not go right for the world number four.

The Queenslander bookended his front nine with near-mirror image birdies from close range to reach four-under and at that stage it appeared as if he would go close to playing partner Zalatoris. 

Things began to unravel after the turn however, when Smith’s approach shot at the 10th hit the left edge of the green before it trickled down the slope into the rough and he was unable to get up-and-down for par.

Another bogey was put on the card when he took two shots out of the greenside bunker at the 15th, but arguably the most frustration came with two missed birdie putts from inside eight feet to close out the round – especially after a majestic second shot from the edge of the creek on the 18th.

Despite those setbacks the 28-year-old remains in the mix, sitting in a tie for tenth, with a platform to make a weekend charge like he did in his wins this year at the Players Championship and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Kiwi Ryan Fox is the next best performing Australasian at even-par, while Lucas Herbert (+1), Jason Day (+3), Marc Leishman (+3) and Cam Davis (+4) have all progressed to the weekend.

Min Woo Lee (+5), Adam Scott (+7) and Matt Jones (+10) all missed the cut.

Leaderboard