Sebastian Garcia is 7-under after 15 holes before weather suspension at the Australian PGA

The weather delay and later suspension meant about half of the 156-player field will be forced to complete their first rounds on Friday morning. Round 2 tee times were to be delayed by 90 minutes.

Earlier, and fresh from an eight-week break after a season that included his first two tournament wins on the PGA Tour, Ryan Fox shot a 4-under 67 and was tied for the lead among those who had finished their rounds.

The 38-year-old New Zealander bogeyed the par-4 second hole but had five birdies the rest of the way.

The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australia and the European tour, which is starting its 2025-26 season just two weeks after Rory McIlroy won the Race to Dubai title.

Fox won this year's Myrtle Beach Classic and Canadian Open on the PGA Tour.

Fox was level with Australian Anthony Quayle and 2024 Asia-Pacific amateur champion Ding Wenyi in a group at 4-under. Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, and fellow Australian Min Woo Lee each shot 68 and were a stroke behind the early leaders.

Quayle had a familiar name as caddie — Steve Williams. On the bag for 13 of Tiger Woods’ major titles, Williams also caddied for Scott when he won the Masters in 2013.

“I met him at the New Zealand Open earlier this year ... got on fairly well and I said, ‘Do you mind if we go grab a coffee afterwards, I’d love to pick your brain?'” Quayle said after his bogey-free round Thursday. “He said 'I’ll give you my number, I’ll come caddie for you.’”

Scott’s five-birdie round ended with his second bogey of the day.

“It’s tricky around the greens,” Scott said. “If you’re just a little bit outside the circle, it can get hard to make putts and you can’t really force it because then you can make mistakes."

Former British Open champion and LIV Tour regular Cameron Smith, winless in more than two years, shot 69, as did the defending champion Elvis Smylie.

Smith, who has won the Australian PGA three times and was runner-up last year, had five top-10 finishes in 13 regular LIV Golf events this season. But he missed his sixth straight cut at last week’s Saudi International in Riyadh.

He was pleased to be back in his home state of Queensland.

"I think I just have a sense of just being at home, feel comfortable sleeping in my own bed,” Smith said. “Lots of familiar faces around, so yeah, it’s just always good to be back.”

Marco Penge, who won three times on the European tour this year and is the tournament's highest-ranked player at No. 30, shot 70.

On Wednesday, the big-hitting Englishman withdrew from the pro-am and said he had been receiving physiotherapy treatment for a neck strain.

“No, it’s not great,” Penge, 27, said Wednesday at Royal Queensland. “The physios here are helping me out. I think I’ve had five physio sessions in the last 24 hours, so we’re doing everything I can to feel OK."

There were two aces on Thursday — Kazumu Kobori’s wedge into the 17th party hole went for a hole in one before Daniel Gale won a sponsor's car with his effort on the 11th. Gale was at 5-under after 12 holes when play was suspended.

McIlroy will highlight the field in next week's Australian Open at Royal Melbourne beginning Dec. 4.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf