Australia's top golfers will do the chasing when the rain-hit Australian PGA Championship round resumes.

Headline acts Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee (three under) and Cameron Smith (two under) were all safely in the clubhouse on Thursday before thunderstorms arrived to stall breakaway first-round leader Sebastian Garcia (seven under).

Spain's Garcia, and outright second place Daniel Gale (five-under through 12 holes), were among a host of players set to complete their rounds early on Friday morning before immediately beginning their second rounds.

Scott bogeyed his final hole to fall one back from early pace-setters Ryan Fox and Anthony Quayle, who has Tiger Woods's former caddie Steve Williams on his bag for the first time.

They will all play afternoon rounds on Friday at the $2.5 million event that will relocate next year while the riverside course, due to host the 2032 Olympics golf competition, undergoes extensive renovations.

Brisbane native Smith won the event twice when it was held at Gold Coast's Royal Pines and again when it moved to Royal Queensland five years ago.

The LIV Golf talent has endured a winless drought that's stretched beyond two years and has worked overtime on his short game to recapture the form that won him the Open Championship and took him to world No.2.

"I want to win," he said.

"I want to win every tournament I play in, but this one in particular has been really good to me and being in Brisbane, I don't know how much longer this tournament's going to be here. 

"It's a bit up in the air at the moment, so yeah, it'd be nice to maybe go out on the win if it's the last one here."