[Photo: Golf NSW]

After taking the clubhouse lead after the morning wave of the NSW Open with Lucas Herbert snapping at his heels, Cameron Smith has welcomed a potential shootout with his good friend and LIV Golf teammate at Murray Downs Golf and Country Club.

Smith, Herbert and amateur Declan O’Donovan teed off No.10 at 7.20am when Smith lived up to his billing with a sensational 64 that matched the course record and took the lead midway through day one (although lift, clean and place was in play on Thursday). Smith, the 2022 British Open winner, made birdies on the 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes to grab the lead before the turn. He rattled off three more birdies on his closing nine to take a one-stroke lead over Herbert before Andrew Martin and Nathan Page matched Herbert’s 65.

Smith said if it played out that he and Herbert went head-to-head on Sunday’s final round, it would be a boon for Murray region fans. He did concede Herbert, who grew up two hours away in Bendigo, Victoria, would have the support.

“Yeah, it’d be good, obviously, Lucas is a bit of a local boy and probably a fan favourite out here, so it’d nice to knock him off if I can,” Smith said with a grin. “But like you said, there’s still a long way to go. There’s 54 holes left, and you know I gotta keep doing what I’m doing, not really focus on what he’s trying to do.”

Herbert in action on day one. Picture: Golf NSW

Herbert, who won three times on the DP World Tour and once on the PGA Tour before joining LIV Golf to play on Smith’s Ripper GC this year – when he helped deliver a maiden, season-long teams victory – said it was pleasing to give the fans what they came out for.

“I think just from a from my own professional standards point of view, you don’t want to go out there and play poorly in front of a crowd but I guess, when you frame it like that and say that we were the two draw cards and for us to be one and two on the leaderboard at the moment, it’s pretty nice, and it feels right in a way,” Herbert said. “It feels like we did our job, in a way.”