Young Australian golfer Cameron Smith is in a tie for second after the first round of at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The 22-year-old Australian shot a seven-under 64 on the Monterey Peninsula course to be one shot off leader, American Chez Reavie in the unique event that sees play take place across three courses - Monterey, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.
Smith's bogey-free round got off to a hot start with five birdies on the front nine, before he made two on the back to join Swede Freddie Jacobson and American Bronson Burgoon at seven-under.
Reavie, who hasn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2008 Canadian Open, set the back nine at Monterey alight making four straight birdies on holes 10 to 13, before again making birdie on 15 and dropping an eagle putt on the par-five 16th to finish the round with the outright lead.
Smith isn't the only Australian in contention, with several of his compatriots going low in their first round.
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Rhein Gibson shot a bogey-free five-under 67 on the Spyglass Hill course to be in a tie for 12th and was joined by rookie Ryan Ruffels.
Ruffels was hot early before a lost ball on the par-four ninth hole at Pebble Beach saw him record a double-bogey.
Matt Jones and Steven Bowditch are a shot further back at four-under and Jones also endured a double-bogey in his round.
Jones had made six straight birdies on holes four to nine before he made a bogey on the par-four tenth and then compounded that error on 13 with a double-bogey.
The Australian Open champion put his tee shot in the fairway trap, and took three more shots to get to the green before two-putting.
While Smith, Gibson, Ruffels, Bowditch and Jones lead the charge, Aaron Baddeley continued his hot start to the season to be three-under along with Greg Chalmers in a tie for 29th.
Both world No.1 Jordan Spieth and Australian world No.3 Jason Day struggled on the Spyglass Hill course to record scores of one-under par each.
Day had it to three-under thru 11 holes before dropping shots down the stretch, while Spieth had an up and down round, mixing three bogeys with four birdies.
Both were left flummoxed by parts of their game that are usually strengths, for Day it was his ball-striking.
"I feel like I am hitting the ball pretty good and then I stand over some shots and I just don't quite have the control that I would like to have," Day said.
"I feel okay with how I am driving it. I feel like it's really close. Once I start getting that control back in the swing and I start gaining a little bit more confidence, then hopefully from there I will start playing a little better."
Spieth ill at ease with his much-vaunted short game.
"I'm just not quite dialled in with my wedges or with the short game right now," Spieth said.
"I had three (birdie) chances on par-fives greenside, just little chip shots, basic shots, and I made par as well as bogeying that 115-yard par-three.
