That one shot … it’s enamoured people since the ancients first whacked rocks with sticks. It’s what got under your skin, it’s what got under mine: that feeling of flushing one, when all your parts work in sync, when you absolutely, positively cannot spank that puppy better.

That one shot of pure ... purity.

It’s what Smith has been looking for since his teary exit from Royal Queensland last week. It's what he's been working hard to find with coach Grant Field every day since.

And, if the evidence of 18 holes on Thursday at The Lakes is any indication, it’s what he is still looking for.

That shot … wasn’t his second one on the par-5 11th, a 3-wood from John Daly Memorial Corner that faded slightly to the flag but found the bank and fell back into the water.

It wasn’t his tee-shot from the par-5 14th that went left into the drink.

Cam Smith (right) confers with caddy Sam Pinfold. PHOTO: PGA of Australia

And it wasn’t his tee-shot on 18 that drew into the short-sided trap as a pair of plovers went squawking crazy while the army of Smith and Min Woo Lee threatened to trample their precious nest of eggs.

All that said, as we wrote in these e-pages yesterday, there was still plenty to like in the game of Australia’s best golfer. And if Smith is off his game, he’s not very far off it.

Earlier, they’d lined up in the fog on Vernon Avenue, three kids in chef's hats and a ‘Let Him Cook’ sign they’d done up that morning in felt pen, bless ‘em. Gotta love a social movement.

Cam Smith sets one free on the par-3 15th hole. He would make par. PHOTO: PGA of Australia

On the 10th tee they stood on grassy hillocks, maybe a thousand folks, straining for a look, camera-phones cocked, as the famous men of golf whacked off in the mist.

And it was exciting stuff.

On the par-5 11th Lee: pulled his drive into a waste hazard; laid up to 130 metres; pulled his approach into a big grassy hillock; duffed his chip into a pot; and channelled his alter ego Dr Chipinski to post a very fighting five.

The sun burned through and The Lakes was bathed in that 'golden hour' of light photographers love. 

On the short and dangerous 12th, a 288m downhill par-4 that feeds back up to a green shaped like an old hound’s tooth, Smith hit a beautiful wedge to just above the hole and watched it stick and suck and roll back as dozens of spectators leaped up and down for a look like Maasai tribesmen in Africa showing off to potential brides.

Cam Smith's driving was mostly excellent. PHOTO: PGA of Australia

Then our man from Japan, Rikuya Hoshino (-4) rolled in a bomb before Lee also made birdie, sliding in a curling, quick downhill bit of kit. The feels looked good for the PGA champ who would finish 5-under.

On the par-3 15th came our first look at a leaderboard. There was red ink everywhere. Conditions were more benign than a benign dictatorship.

Overnight rain meant soft greens. Zero wind meant point and shoot. Throw in lift-clean-and-place-on-the-flier-lie-of-your-choice, and there was surely 10-under out there if someone wanted it.

Smith did. But he couldn’t get hold of it.

A brilliant, lasered 7-iron from downtown stuck to seven feet on 16. Was that the shot? It was not. His putt fell low-side and only the sound of a motor-boat in the pond blunted the swear word which punctuated the still morning air.

 
 
 
 
 
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A 3-wood hit the 17th green and gave Smith a 20-foot look at eagle. Was that the shot? It was not. He'd birdied the birdie hole. Then he bogied the 18th when a sand-save didn’t.

And he went to the turn at one-under when four-under was there on a platter. Cam Davis would turn in six-under.

Smith then birdied one, bogied three, birdied five, bogied seven and didn’t birdie the par-5 eighth when, again, it was there to be eaten, as Davis ate it on his way to a nine-under score of 63.

 
 
 
 
 
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Tale of the tape? On the four par-5s Davis made three birdies and an eagle. Smith made a birdie and three pars.

As Billy Birmingham's Richie Benaud said when Bill Lawry was late to a Channel Nine commentary team meeting: "Not good enough, Bill."

Of course, it wasn’t for lack of trying. The man’s a serious player and competitor.

But that one shot? It's still waiting to be hit.