Four birdies in his first six holes have powered Min Woo Lee to the lead in a hot start to his Australian PGA Championship defence in Brisbane.

About 400 brave souls gathered under grey clouds to watch Lee, Cameron Smith and Jason Day begin their campaigns at Royal Queensland early on Thursday.

By the turn there was close to 1000 following the Australian super group, Lee’s thunderous drives and some clutch putting helping him to a share of the lead at four-under through nine holes.

He then birdied the par-four second to move clear at five under.

Former world No.1 Day, in his first Australian appearance in seven years, sunk a five-metre putt on the 18th hole to move to three under.

Smith’s radar was slightly off as he mixed two bogeys with two birdies to round the turn even par, before birdieing the first two holes on his back nine in the $2 million tournament he’s won three times in the last six years.

Lee was out-driving his star playing partners by at least 20 metres on the par fives, while a curling eight-metre putt on the par three 11th hole shot him straight to the front.

Day birdied the 15th, 16th and 18th to keep pace with the man he says can be Australia’s next world No.1.

South African Aldrich Potgieter was four-under through 11 holes while David Micheluzzi, Ben Eccles, Freddy Schott, Rasmus Nergaard-Petersen and Phoenix Campbell were all three-under.