Australian LIV Golf stars Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert have made bright starts to this year’s Australian Open, but a young up-and-coming Japanese player has taken the early lead.

Japan’s Rintaro Nakano lit up the Kingston Heath Golf Club in his opening round, shooting eight-under through 15 holes.

Smith and Herbert, playing their first round at Victoria Golf Club, made promising starts as they hunt their national open.

Smith recovered from a bogey on his third hole to rack up five straight birdies to finish his opening nine.

Smith reached the turn at four under and shared the lead with French-born Armenian Jean Bekirian, as Nakano started recording birdies on his scorecard.

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.

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 number two for a decade.

But the 2022 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.