There were scrambles, sluggishness and the hint of a shank yet two-time defending champion Cameron Smith remained within reach of the top of the leaderboard following his opening round at the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

In the opening group of the tournament along with American drawcard Cameron Champ and Kiwi Ryan Fox, Smith relied on his short game to register six pars and a birdie in his opening seven holes to be 1-under but a bogey at the par-4 17th was a precursor to a difficult period to come after the turn.

A double bogey at the par-3 second and subsequent birdies at three and four saw the crowd favourite fall to 4-over and in danger of having the chance of a threepeat evaporate after just 18 holes.

A birdie at the short par-4 sixth and two-putt birdie at the par-5 ninth gave Smith some momentum heading into Friday and with time to replenish the energy stocks prior to Friday’s second round.

Coach Grant Field sensed no sign of fatigue in Smith despite the 3am wake-up call but the 26-year-old conceded the early grind eventually took its toll.

“Once I got going, that’s when I started to kind of struggle,” Smith said.

“Usually it’s the other way around, usually I kind of start slow on the range and then once I get into it, it’s fine.

“Just used up maybe a little bit too much energy trying to make those putts early in the round and trying to get something going and then just a couple poor swings on the back nine.

“I didn’t really know where it was going. It was just one of those kind of days where a par was a good score.

“I was 4-over at one point and had a couple birdies to get it back, so I got something to look forward to at least for tomorrow.”

Smith’s round really began to unravel when he hit 6-iron long and left at the par-3 second and failed to get the ball up the steep bank and onto the green and then a tree branch disrupting his backswing led to a further dropped shot at the third hole.

“I didn’t think I was going to hit the branches there on my backswing,” Smith said.

“Kind of got me by surprise and threw me off a little bit, but I hit the tree and actually got quite lucky that it went that way and not the other way.”

Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin had the best of the morning rounds with 5-under 67s with Nick Cullen, Travis Smyth and Kiwi Chisnall a further shot back at 4-under par.