Cam Smith says he's perfectly placed at the inaugural LIV Golf tournament in Australia after an opening round he described as epic but stressful.

Smith finished three under at the Grange Golf Course on Friday, seven shots adrift of leader Talor Gooch.

The 31-year-old American fired a flawless 10-under 62 as Smith revelled in home crowd support from a raucous 35,000-strong sell-out crowd.

"The energy was really high out there," Smith said.

"It's nice to have a lot of people that are riding with you but it's also pretty stressful - you want to hit a good shot all the time, it's not as free-flowing as what it typically is.

"It was a pretty epic day."

Smith captains an all Australian LIV team, called Ripper GC, featuring Marc Leishman (one under), Matt Jones (even par) and Jed Morgan (four over).

The quartet marvelled at the crowd support at the sandbelt course in Adelaide's west.

"Unbelievable, probably as energetic a crowd I have ever played in front of," Leishman said.

"That rivals being in contention in a major for sure ... it was ridiculous actually."

The 23-year-old Morgan had one word for the experience.

"Sick," he said.

"There's no other word for it ... it was just sick."

Smith's three under included one bogey and a batch of near-misses with the putter.

"I had two or three lip-outs there on the back nine that could have easily been another two or three shots," he said.

"I still feel like I'm really in the tournament ... I got a lot of momentum off the back of today, I just need those putts to roll in."

Gooch holds a four shot buffer from Englishman Richard Bland and South Africa's Dean Burmester.

New Zealander Danny Lee is among five golfers at five under while eight golfers including Sergio Garcia are four under.

Brooks Koepka carded three under, Phil Mickelsen two under and Dustin Johnson one under while Gooch's 10 birdies included a hot streak of five in a row.

"If anyone says they're not surprised at 10 under, they're lying," he said.

"It's the day that you work hard for ... it was one of those rounds where I was hitting it close and making a lot of putts, so it was fun."

Only 10 players in the 48-strong field finished over par.

American Shiwan Kim had a torrid time - he posted a 10 on the par-5 7th and wobbled to a 12-over 84 - while Bryson DeChambeau struggled to two over.