Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert have caught fire to surge to the top of the leaderboard early in the first round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Pre-tournament favourite Smith recovered from a bogey on his third hole to rack up six straight birdies from holes 14 through one.

Herbert, who teed off the 10th hole, made birdies on 13, 15, 17, 18 and one.

Both golfers played the Victoria Golf Club. 

Rintaro Nakano of Japan, playing Kingston Heath, shares the tournament lead at 5-under.

Smith arrived on the sand-belt with a burning desire to win a maiden Australian Open crown, a coveted national championship that has eluded the former world No.2 for a decade.

But the 2022 British Open champion blasted officials after Wednesday’s pro-am at Kingston Heath for softening up the famed sand-belt courses and setting up an “American style” layout this week.

It didn’t matter on Thursday, though, as Smith took out his frustrations on the neighbouring Victoria layout.

After starting on the 10th tee, Smith slumped to one over through three holes before reeling off birdies on the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th holes.

While Smith ran hot, fellow former world No.2 Minjee Lee’s hopes of landing a first Australian Open women’s crown suffered an early setback.

Playing in the group behind Smith in the dual-gender event, Lee fell to three over early, before collecting consecutive birdies to reach the turn at one over par.

The two-time major winner was six shots behind fellow Australian Su Oh.