The 35-year-old fired a four-under 66 in his opening round of the tournament at TPC River Highlands Golf Club to sit tied for 13^th, two shots adrift of the six opening round leaders.

"It's nice when you can hole a putt like that. You can (start the round two chase) that little bit quicker," Leishman told AAP.

The World No.23 was pleased with a number of aspects in his game which helped him get off to a good start for the second tournament in a row, after shooting a four-under at the US Open last week.

"I thought I drove it really well; the best I've driven it in a long time," Leishman said.

"That gave me chances going into the greens. You can attack flags from the fairway. I (also) putted great; I made a really good putt on (the ninth) for par and then that really good putt on 18.

"You always feel you could have been one or two (strokes) better, but overall, I'm happy with the score."

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Leishman, who fired five birdies and a bogey, shares 13^th spot with 11 others including highly-ranked American Patrick Cantlay

The Warrnambool export enjoyed a solid day of ball-striking, finding 12 of 14 fairways from the tee and 12 of 18 greens in regulation.

His first four birdies came on the front nine at par-4 second, par-3 fifth, par-5 sixth and par-4 seventh. On the back nine his bogey fell at the par-3 11^th before registering his final birdie on the par-4 15^th.

The 2012 event winner is confident he can claw his way back up the leaderboard on day two.

"It's a fun golf course and it's in unbelievable condition; hopefully the sun comes out and can dry it out," he said.

Behind Leishman as the next best Australian on the scorecard is Matt Jones (69) at one under, while Jason Day threatened to go low but finished with a round of 70.

Fellow Australians Curtis Luck, Cameron Davis and Aaron Baddeley join Day, a former number one, on par heading into the second round.

Queenslanders Cameron Smith (71) and Rod Pampling (72) finished the round one and two over par respectively.

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