The fairways were lined with thousands of fans to watch star LIV Golf recruit Cameron Smith, DP World Tour ace Ryan Fox and PGA Tour veteran Adam Scott in the Australian PGA Championship's marquee group on Thursday.

The PGA Tour have banned players who defected to the Saudi-backed alternative, the four majors among the few other places where that co-existence remains possible, with a February court case to determine LIV golfers’ playing future on the DP World Tour.

That pending decision meaning Smith and fellow LIV Tour members Marc Leishman and Wade Ormsby have been allowed to play in Brisbane and at next week's Australian Open both co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia and the DP World Tour.

It was a move welcomed by hundreds of golf-starved fans who were there to watch Smith tee off at 6am in his hometown for the first time in three years.

"It was pretty unreal; I was more expecting (people to show up) after nine holes, or around the turn," Smith said of the scene that greeted him on the 10th tee.

"It was cool and I think the course is going to get better and better.

"It'll be a good weekend to watch golf."

Smith and Leishman will play a LIV Golf event in Adelaide next year and hope to bring one to Queensland, where their insistence that the controversial Tour's been received well was backed up by Thursday's buoyant crowds.

Smith's new responsibilities as a spokesman for LIV Golf come in a year he reached as high as No.2 in the world.

"I've definitely enjoyed it, but it for sure has been long," Smith said of the build-up to Thursday's first-round that included a Greg Norman Medal win, the keys to the city reception and constant obligations.

Scott, who has resisted any temptation he may have had to join the lucrative Tour remembers when he returned for the Australian swing with the green jacket in 2013.

"(Because of) his rise to stardom this year he's being pulled in all kinds of directions, I'm sure," Scott said.

"But it's something you learn pretty quickly to manage and I observe from fairly nearby; he does a really good job of focusing when he needs to and has a good support team.

"I really don't have too many worries about Cam.

"Hopefully he can enjoy the experience as well, because that month of golf when I came home (in 2013) is one of the great memories of my career."