Two eagles and five birdies have vaulted Australian golfer Cameron Smith to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the US PGA Tour event in Hawaii.

Australian golf star Cameron Smith has opened the new year in sizzling style to seize the first-round lead at the US PGA Tour's Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

Highlighted by two eagles, Smith carded an eight-under-par 65 to grab a one-stroke lead over Spanish world No.1 John Rahm and Americans Patrick Cantlay and Daniel Berger.

Only the 36 winners from the 2020-21 season made the field at Kapalua and Smith upstaged the lot despite confessing to starting "terribly" with a couple of wrong yardages.

He bogeyed the second hole but drained long bombs on the par-5 fifth and par-5 15th holes to ignite his round.

"Yeah, I just needed those two eagles to get a really low one happening. Obviously two really long putts and probably quite fortunate that they went in, but they went in," he said.

Smith credited his lightning start to 2022 to almost two weeks of little golf and plenty of fishing and lounging around.

"Six or seven weeks off, a bit of a refresh, I mean, it got really hectic there towards the end of the season last year," he said.

"I didn't play a lot through the fall, so it kind of felt like I've had a really long break.

"It's always good to just be at home and fish and kind of do nothing."

Smith qualified by teaming with countryman Marc Leishman to win last year's Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Leishman is also in the mix in a share of 13th after opening with a four-under 67.

He's tied with fellow Australians Lucas Herbert and Cameron Davis, with Matt Jones one shot further back in a tie for 23rd.

The five Australians are striving to break a 12-year title drought since Geoff Ogilvy (2009-2010) and Stuart Appleby (2004-2006) won the event five times between them in the space of seven years.