The 2001 champion took advantage of the benign conditions at The Hills to fire a 7-under-par 65 and share the lead in the $830,000 New Zealand Open.
Until late in the day, Smail was the sole leader of the tournament, set to provide the opening-round story everyone wanted.
A pair of 24-year-olds, one American and one Australian, had other ideas.
First, lanky Texan Robert Gates birdied his final three holes to join Smail on 7 under.
Then, not 10 minutes later, young Australian Andrew Dodt came home with four straight birdies to create a three-way tie at the top.
The leaders are one stroke ahead of smooth American DJ Brigman, one of Smail's playing partners, and Australian journeyman Andrew Bonhomme, who both carded 66.
Eight players are on 5 under and a further eight are on 4 under.
Smail, who finished tied for 25th at the Open last year, hit a tournament-leading 85.7% of fairways, but pointed to his putter as the key to his blemish-free round.
"I'm still not 100% happy with the way I hit it, but I putted superbly all day," he said.
"It's probably been almost a good year since I putted really well. And I only had 27 putts today."
Smail made a brisk start, posting birdies on his first two holes, and said that gave him an immediate confidence boost.
That was tested on the tricky 18th hole, Smail's ninth, as he got into trouble in the sand.
"My second shot, I hit it fat and straight into the bunker.
But I had a nice lie and played a real good bunker shot."
Turning in 31, Smail added consecutive birdies on the fourth and fifth to boost his score.
Smail, ever the perfectionist, mentioned his flubbed second shot on the first hole when asked to talk about his round.
"I topped my 3-wood. I remember that well.
"The fairways are actually quite soft. I hit 2-iron off the tee and it pulled up pretty quick and there was a bit of mud on the ball. I tried to hit a high 3-wood and it didn't work at all."
Smail, Brigman and Bonhomme all played in the morning round.
It seemed they would not be caught in the afternoon but then Gates and Dodt came charging home.
Gates, a rookie accompanied by girlfriend and caddy Lauren Johnson, eagled his first hole and then came charging home.
"That was a lot of fun. I hit a lot of good shots and the last three holes were great," Gates said.
"Conditions were perfect and when we saw the low scores this morning, we knew we had a chance to do something."
Gates iced his round with a sizzling 15m birdie putt that curled into the hole on 18.
Dodt nearly finished with an even bigger splash, hitting the flag with his second shot on the last hole, leaving him with a 3m putt for birdie.
Dunedin's Mahal Pearce made a mixed start, posting two birdies and two bogies through his first six holes.
Pearce, the 2003 champion, recovered to push home with 11 pars and a birdie on the tricky 16th to finish tidily placed at 1 under.
Eight New Zealanders broke par, with Smail and Pearce joined by Josh Geary and Phil Tataurangi (3 under), Steve Alker and Grant Waite (2 under) and Doug Batty and Brad Iles (1 under).
One of the great turnarounds came from burly American Jason Gore, who made a horrible start, dropping four shots on his first nine holes.
He then rattled off six consecutive birdies to finish at a respectable 2 under.
Veteran Australian Peter Lonard also made a rough start with an immediate bogey on the 10th but finished the round on 1 under, while former champion Craig Parry's erratic even-par 72 included five birdies and five bogies.
The leading amateur is Australia's Matt Jager (4 under), with New Zealand amateurs Peter Spearman-Burn and Gary-John Hill both making par.
There was a hint of a shower at about 3.30pm yesterday but otherwise the day was warm and calm.
More good weather is expected today, so there may be another flurry of low scores.
The cut was 1-over-par 145 at The Hills in 2007 and 1-under-par 143 last year.
The official first-round crowd figure at the Open was 3615, up by 470 from last year.
