Adam Scott was scrambling to find his clubs for a dawn Australian PGA Championship start but you wouldn't have known it.

The 2013 Masters champion was typically silky around Royal Queensland, a five-under 66 enough for the early clubhouse lead ahead of Cameron Smith (68) on Thursday.

He held that for most of the day before Min Woo Lee, Jason Scrivener and John Lyras tracked him down to share the overnight lead at six-under.

Scott had an early task for reunited caddy Steve Williams when he woke for a 6am tee time and couldn't find his bag.

Eventually recovered from his manager's room, the pair were welcomed by hundreds of early risers on the 10th tee in a marquee pairing with Open Championship winner Smith and DP World Tour standout Ryan Fox (72).

"It was panic stations ... Steve was kicking doors down," Scott laughed of his early-morning search for clubs.

There were thousands following by the time they finished, Scott reckoning he was the "third wheel" of the group despite the leaderboard at lunch time hinting otherwise.

Sharp approach play led to four tap-in birdies in five holes either side of the turn and then, after back-to-back bogeys brought him back to the field, Scott's putting earned him two more shots in the final three holes.

Scott sought local advice on how to navigate Royal Queensland's dramatically undulating greens that feature sharp run-offs, his decision to putt multiple times from off the green paying off.

"The conditions couldn't be better and you want to take advantage of that," he said.

"I'm very pleased with that, all really solid stuff.

"I may have changed but I know he's (Williams) not (changing), so I knew what to expect and to fall back into familiar routines was easy."