Unperturbed by last week's home-deck horror show, Cameron Smith is remaining optimistic despite gifting the leaders another huge head start at the Australian Open in Sydney.

The Queenslander was reduced to tears after missing the cut at last week's Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane, describing his performance as one of the worst of his professional career.

He trailed eventual champion Min Woo Lee by nine shots after the opening round and was unable to recover.

On Thursday, the 2022 British Open champion and former world No.2 dunked two balls in the water in a one-under 71 at The Lakes to find himself eight shots adrift of first-round leader Cam Davis.

But Smith is adamant he can climb the leaderboard on Friday.

"There's definitely something to build on there for sure," he told reporters.

"I didn't feel as kind of anxious and uncomfortable.

"There's a couple of really tough shots out there, particularly tee shots, so it was good to just commit."

The Australian layout appeared the more challenging of the two courses throughout the first day across the split-venue format, but Smith would have certainly said the same about The Lakes, too.

The 30-year-old was frustrated with his putting and he was kicking himself when he found the water on both his front-nine par-5s.

But how he responded to his dip in the drink, spoke of where he is hoping to go as he rescued par on both holes.

"There was still plenty of good out of today ... I'm putting so much pressure on having to make the putt rather than just hitting the putt," he said.

"Those birdie opportunities didn't come too often last week, so I think it just comes from that.

"If I get on a bit of a roll, if I hit a few greens in a row, I think the putter will start to free up and some putts will go in."