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Marc Leishman cracked a beer not long after he heard the devastating news that Jarrod Lyle had died after a 20-year battle with cancer.

He figures it's just what the popular former US PGA Tour player would have wanted.

"It would have been rude of me not to," Leishman told AAP.

"We also had some dessert for him; we brought out got the chocolate molten cake."

Leishman is among the Australian stars at the US PGA Championship choosing to remember the warm memories of Lyle, who died aged 36 in Victoria on Wednesday.

"We're devastated," an emotional Leishman said after the opening round at Missouri's Bellerive Country Club.

"I'm trying to remember the good stuff, because that's what he'd want.

"His big smile, booming laugh and awesome sense of humour; there's no doubt he'd want us not to be moping around."

Former world No.1 Adam Scott choked back tears on day one at the year's final major.

"It sucks, really," Scott said.

"It was a nice escape to get out on the course today and try not to think about it."

But, like Leishman, Scott is focusing on the good times he enjoyed with "a shining light of a bloke".

"To be so optimistic with the cards he was dealt was amazing," Scott said of Lyle's three fights against acute myeloid leukaemia.

"His story resonated with so many people. We hear such average news all the time and he was a shining light of a bloke; it's no wonder everyone gravitated towards him."

A winner of two events on the US secondary circuit, Lyle returned to golf in 2013 having beaten cancer a second time.

Scott said his favourite memory of Lyle was watching him make the cut at the 2013 Australian Masters at Royal Melbourne.

"Seeing him come back and play the Aussie masters was special," Scott, who won the event, said.

"He was playing the best golf of his life (in 2012) and got sat down to go back and have treatment again.

"To to make it back to the course (in 2013) was a really big deal and showed how much ticker he has."

Former world No.1 Jason Day said he would remember Lyle's relentless positivity.

"He battled half his life, but the crazy thing is he was always upbeat and positive," Day said.

"If you played golf with him, you'd always walked off the golf course happy.

"I wouldn't know one tenth of what he went through and what his family went through."

Australian club pro Craig Hocknull says he'll never forget the feeling of being two shots off the lead at a major championship and hearing a crowd erupt for Tiger Woods.

"That roar was something else," Hocknull said on Thursday.

The 14-time major winner Woods was teeing off in the first round at the US PGA Championship when Hocknull, making his major debut, was coming up the seventh at Bellerive Country Club, in Missouri.

Stepping up to the occasion, Arizona-based Hocknull birdied the hole to climb to one-under-par and, for a fleeting moment, was two shots off the lead.

"When I was on the seventh we heard the roars coming from Tiger teeing off on 10 and I told my son 'this is where you wanna be'," Hocknull said.

"It was an absolutely incredible feeling."

The brush with golf royalty came just 30 minutes after 43-year-old Hocknull almost holed a 5-iron for eagle from 200 yards, his approach to the par-4 fifth hole settling eight feet from the flag.

Hocknull struggled on the back nine at Bellerive and settled for a 72 to finish at two over and seven shots back of clubhouse leader Rickie Fowler (65).

Four-time PGA Championship winner Woods (70) only beat Hocknull by two shots.

But Papua New Guinea-born, Northern Territory-raised Hocknull said he would never forget his first 18 holes on golf's biggest stage.

"On the first tee, I was upset I wasn't the first to hit off because my hands were shaking pretty good," Hocknull said.

"I've played one event on the PGA Tour (the 2017 Phoenix Open) but this is a totally different ball-game," he said.

Hocknull says if he wasn't one of 20 club pros to qualify for the year's final major via the PGA Professionals Championship, he'd be conducting golf lessons in his summer residence of Utah.

"Normal day, I'd be standing on the back of the range at Glenwild Golf Club teaching one of my students," he said.

Hocknull invented his own putter, the Saber Cat, and declined offers to endorse other brands to put Saber on the font of his hat and shirt.

"I just need to get myself on the (TV) coverage," Hocknull joked.

Australian golfer Jarrod Lyle, who has died aged 36, hopes his long battle with cancer inspires other families suffering through the disease.

And his heartbroken friends and family say that's typical of the gregarious golfer: thinking of others, to his end.

Tributes are flowing for Lyle, who his wife Briony says passed away at 8.20pm on Wednesday.

Lyle asked her to deliver his final public message: "Thanks for your support, it meant the world. My time was short but if I have helped people think and act on behalf of those families who suffer through cancer, hopefully it wasn't wasted."

Lyle spent his final days surrounded by loved ones when he decided to go into palliative care after ending treatment for a third bout of myeloid leukaemia.

The former US PGA Tour player is survived by his wife and daughters Lusi, six, and Jemma, two.

"Lusi, Jemma and I are filled with grief and now must confront our lives without the greatest husband and father we could ever have wished for," Ms Lyle said in a statement issued on Thursday by Golf Australia.

"At the same time, we have been blessed and overwhelmed with the messages and actions of support from around the world ... Jarrod was able to take in many of the unbelievably kind and generous acts and words in his final few days and was overwhelmed by the emotional outpouring."

Lyle's friend and fellow Australian golfer Mark Leishman said the golfing fraternity was shattered.

"It's a life taken way too soon," Leishman told AAP.

"He showed us how to face the toughest times with the utmost positivity and his fight to the very end was so inspiring."

Compatriots and competitors alike hailed the courage of the Lyle, born in Shepparton, Victoria and initially diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at the age of 17.

"If we all had just a drop of your fight and courage," fellow pro golfer Marcus Fraser said of Lyle, whose two professional tournament wins came in 2008.

"It is through a river of tears I say goodbye ... quick with a joke, didn't mind a beer, and just a pure joy to be around every day." Australian golfer Greg Chalmers posted on Twitter.

Fellow Aussie Jason Day posted: "Jarrod will forever be an inspiration to us alI."

South African Ernie Els: "He fought a good fight and will be forever remembered for his courage, strength, perseverance and the light he brought to all of our lives."

Irishman Rory McIlroy: "The courage shown through his battle is an inspiration to all of us. He made the world a better place."

Tiger Woods donated $10,000 to a GoFundMe initiative to support Lyle's two daughters; American Bryson DeChambeau donated his $25,000 winnings from a long-drive competition.

The funding website page, titled Jarrod Lyle's Girls, has raised more than $90,000 since set up earlier this week.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said Lyle's death had left the tour "heartbroken".

"Jarrod was a true inspiration in the way he faced cancer with a persistently positive attitude and he carried himself with incredible grace, dignity and courage through the recurrences of this relentless disease," Monahan said in a statement.

A private funeral service would be held for Lyle in coming days before a public memorial service, at a date yet to be announced, at Lyle's home club, The Sands golf course in Torquay, Victoria.

REACTION TO THE DEATH OF GOLFER JARROD LYLE

* "He asked that I provide a simple message: 'Thanks for your support, it meant the world. My time was short, but if I've helped people think and act on behalf of those families who suffer through cancer, hopefully it wasn't wasted'." Lyle's wife, Briony

* "It is through a river of tears I say goodbye to my friend Jarrod Lyle ... quick with a joke, didn't mind a beer, and just a pure joy to be around every day." Greg Chalmers

* "Jarrod will forever be an inspiration to us alI ... rest easy mate. We will miss you." Jason Day

* "He showed us how to face the toughest times with the utmost positivity and his fight to the very end was so inspiring." Mark Leishman

* "The courage shown through his battle is an inspiration to all of us. He made the world a better place." Rory McIlroy.

* "Such a sad day, we will all miss you so much Jarrod." Justin Rose

* "He fought a good fight and will be forever remembered for his courage, strength, perseverance and the light he brought to all of our lives." Ernie Els

* "Golfers are usually measured in life by performances on the course. Today we lost a great man who's life off the course is one we should all try to emulate." Matt Jones

" "RIP mate. If we all had just a drop of your fight and courage. The most infectious smile and personality we have ever come across." Marcus Fraser

* Jarrod was a true inspiration in the way he faced cancer with a persistently positive attitude and he carried himself with incredible grace, dignity and courage." PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan

* "Thank you for showing us how to go about life and how to treat others. You will be greatly missed but not forgotten...I will do my part in making sure of that." Rickie Fowler

* "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Lyle family. You were and always will be a fighter and will be missed by so many people." Patrick Reed

* "Tough times for everyone on tour losing someone so special but I cannot imagine what he and his family went and are going through." Francesco Molinari

Over the past 15-or-so summers, just about the best news any golf fan in Australia could hear was that Jarrod Lyle would be playing in the Masters or the Open, or anywhere at all.

Forget about Tiger Woods and the rest, if Lyle was playing it was a bonus, a special joy just to know the big, smiling guy from Shepparton was well enough to tee it up.

It didn't always happen, and won't again.

But an enormous legacy of inspiration remains for a man who repeatedly battled life-threatening illness with courage, grace and trademark generosity of spirit.

Lyle, who died on Wednesday aged 36, was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 1999 when he was 17 and a promising amateur golfer.

He spent much of the next nine months in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital fighting the disease and it was another year after that before he could walk around a golf course.

When finally he was fit enough to play competitively he reduced his handicap to scratch by the time he turned 19 and a couple of years later won a Victorian Institute of Sport golf scholarship.

For the next few years it was as though he was making up for lost time. He turned professional in 2004, qualified for the Asian Tour within another year, and less than 12 months after that was playing in the US on the second-tier Web.com Tour.

In his first season he finished 18th in the money list, earning himself a ticket to play on the US PGA Tour for 2007.

The vagaries of golf came into play and Lyle finished his first season on the world's most lucrative golf circuit in 164th place on the money list and had to drop back a level to what had been renamed as the Nationwide Tour.

With experience by then to match his natural ability, Lyle won two Nationwide events in 2008, finishing fourth on the money list and again being elevated to the US PGA Tour.

In 2011 he lost his tour card again but earned it back at qualifying school then achieved his best PGA Tour result of tied fourth in Los Angeles early in 2012.

By now Lyle had married Briony and the pair returned to Australia in March 2012 for the birth of their first child, Lusi.

It was while he was at home that a relapse of the leukaemia was diagnosed, causing golf to go on hold for more debilitating treatment until he was again declared to be in remission, making his comeback to the game in the 2013 Australian Masters at Royal Melbourne.

Remarkably, Lyle again made his way back to the PGA Tour, playing 20 more tournaments in 2015 and 2016, playing with moderate success and becoming one of the world's most universally-admired golfers.

Returning to live in Australia, he and Briony had their second daughter, Jemma.

Then, in 2017, while being treated for a cough, it was discovered that the leukaemia had returned.

With his game again on hold, Lyle and Briony launched a line of golf apparel and as his recovery progressed he joined the TV commentary team for the Australian Open.

At the same time, doctors presented Lyle with new realities, the gravity of which he revealed in an on-line blog

"Things are about to get really serious for me and my health over the next couple of months," he wrote.

"Next week I'm going to hospital for a bone marrow transplant. I'm shitting myself."

Lyle explained that he would receive stem cells in a bone marrow transplant from his brother Leighton.

"At best I've got a one-in-four chance of coming out the other side," he wrote.

"That's why I'm so scared."

With typical courage, Lyle fought on, and as his situation became known, the entire golf world rallied.

The first month of 2018 was declared "January for Jarrod" month on the US PGA Tour and tributes began to appear on the social media accounts of every prominent player in the world.

Meanwhile, as Lyle grew weaker, Briony took over writing the blog. In June she revealed the extent of the debilitating effects of not just the cancer, but associated auto-immune disorders that affected his eyesight and hearing and robbed him of all strength.

"His goals have been reduced to the smallest things, like being able to spread jam on his toast," Briony wrote.

As serious as the situation had become, there seemed to be hope.

"We are certain we will get through this crap once again, but it's really hard to stay upbeat," she wrote in June.

And in late July: "... things continue to be incredibly tough."

A week later, Lyle and his doctors decided medical treatment should cease and he receive only palliative care.

"He has given everything that he's got to give, and his poor body cannot take any more," Briony wrote.

Messages of support flowed from tour peers and others touched by his story around the globe.

Tiger Woods was among those wearing a Leuk the Duck badge in his cap in recognition of Lyle and Challenge, the children's cancer foundation he was an ambassador for.

Lyle won two professional tournaments in a career that was never able to flourish, but he will be remembered for much more than golf.

Tommy Fleetwood got paid more than $US150,000 ($A201,000) in prize money from last month's British Open.

But it was not paid to the Tommy Fleetwood who played in the championship and finished equal 12th at Carnoustie.

Instead, it was sent to a 58-year-old by the same name who caddies at the Streamsong Resort in Bowling Green, Florida.

Caddie Fleetwood told Reuters he was trying to get in touch with English world No.11 to put the player's mind at ease that the money would be refunded.

"It was an honest mistake," Fleetwood said, sounding dumbfounded that he had suddenly become a focus of media attention.

"My mother called me to say she's been getting lots of calls from the media."

The European Tour confirmed the error.

"This was a clerical error which we are resolving and we apologise for the inconvenience caused to both parties," the European Tour said in a statement.

Caddie Fleetwood received a direct deposit of $US154,480 ($208,000).

"I tried to get on their senior tour, so they have my (bank) information," he said.

On the eve of his US PGA Championship title defence, Justin Thomas says his confidence levels are at a career-high having battled final round nerves to win last week's WGC-Bridgestone.

Thomas fended off charges from Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Australia's Jason Day to earn a four-shot victory at Ohio's Firestone Country Club.

In an ominous sign to the 156 players competing at Bellerive Country Club this week, Thomas feels he is beginning to figure out how to handle anxiety atop US PGA Tour leaderboards.

The 25-year-old has won nine US Tour events in an already brilliant career that also includes taking out last year's $US10 million FedEx Cup bonus.

"Last week, but I was really nervous going into Sunday," Thomas said.

"I was nervous that someone was going to play well, and I was going to have to play really well to win.

"But I was able to go back to those past experiences, just like the PGA last year when it was anyone's tournament with five holes to play."

Thomas also has experience defending a US Tour title, having won the CIMB Classic in Malaysia in 2015 and 2016.

Thomas credits his idol, 14-time major champion Tiger Woods, for inspiring him to become a prolific winner.

Thomas watched from the gallery at Valhalla Golf Club in his native Kentucky when Woods claimed the 2000 PGA Championship in a play-off.

"I do remember how cool it was, just hearing the roars and how many people and the shots that Tiger was hitting, the putts that he was making," Thomas said.

"Even though I was only seven years old, it just got me motivated; I was like, man, I want to do this."

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Cameron Smith says his time spent playing golf in tropical south-east Asia has prepared him for a stinking hot and humid US PGA Championship.

Playing a Wednesday practice round with countrymen Jason Day and Marc Leishman, Smith lost balance on soggy turf while hitting his tee shot on the 17th hole at Bellerive Country Club in Missouri.

Following heavy rain on Tuesday, competitors at the year's final major are now bracing for temperatures in the mid 30s and humidity above 60 per cent forecast for the week.

But having played on the Asian Tour in 2014, world No.49 Smith knows exactly how to prepare for swampy conditions.

The 25-year-old says playing in muggy St Louis reminds him of his US PGA Tour debut in 2014 at the co-sanctioned CIMB Classic in Malaysia, where he braved severe Kuala Lumpur humidity to share fifth place.

"Yeah, it's pretty similar," Smith told AAP.

"It's meant to be brutally hot all week and the amount of moisture in the ground is pretty crazy."

But having played junior and amateur golf all over Queensland, and now based in Florida, Smith feels comfortable in the heat.

"Staying hydrated and knocking the waters down is going to be important," Smith said.

"I typically love playing in the hot and humid conditions; it's something I grew up with."

Smith is among a five-player Australian contingent, the smallest representation since the 1992 PGA Championship which, ironically, was held at Bellerive.

Leishman has also welcomed sticky conditions, having won the 2015 Nedbank Challenge in scorching hot Sun City, South Africa, as well as the US Tour's Travelers Championship in a humid Connecticut in June, 2012.

"Most of my good performances have been in super hot conditions; at the Nedbank it was roasting and the Travellers, when I won, when was over 100 Fahrenheit (38C) every day and humid.

"I love playing in the heat because it makes the body loose.

"You just have to prepare for it; hydrate the night before and the morning of each round."

This is the last year the PGA Championship will be held at the peak of American summer, with the PGA of America moving the event to May from next year.

Australian former world No.1 Adam Scott says he won't miss playing a major championship in August in the US.

"Yep, it's going to be a long week; you'll have to pace yourself with long rounds Thursday and Friday, but we've done it before, so I'm hopefully fit enough to get around," Scott said.

Rounding out the Australian contingent at Bellerive is Arizona-based Craig Hocknull, who was one of 20 club pros to qualify through the recent PGA Professionals Championship.

Tiger Woods has predicted golf's big hitters will hold the US PGA Championship to ransom with soft, wet conditions forecasted for the year's final major.

With heavy downpours on Tuesday, several long suspensions in play forced many in the field to abandon practice rounds at a soggy Bellerive Country Club in St Louis, Missouri.

Bellerive will be the fifth PGA Championship venue in six years to measure longer than 7300 yards - the other four were won by notable long drivers Justin Thomas, Jason Day and two-time winner Rory McIlroy.

Combined with forecasted humidity of at least 60 per cent throughout the week, four-time winner Woods expects Bellerive to be a bomber's paradise.

"It's playing so soft ... you need to get the ball out there," Woods said.

"The ball is just plugging (when it lands), and if anything, it favours a guy who hits the ball high because we're not going to get any run.

"Fortunately, I'm one of the guys who hits the ball high."

In an ominous sign to the 156-player field, McIlroy says Bellerive resembles Kentucky's Valhalla Golf Club, where the Northern Irishman put on a driving clinic in 2014 to claim his fourth major title.

"With the weather, it does remind me of Valhalla where there's a lot of mounding and it's a big, long golf course," McIlroy said.

McIlroy is one of several big hitters arriving at the year's final major in top form.

Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson each have three US PGA Tour victories this year, while Australian former world No.1 Day has two.

Tall, muscular Brooks Koepka won his second straight US Open at Shinnecock Hills in June, while McIlroy broke an 18-month winless drought in March.

Jordan Spieth, whose average drive of 300.1 yards is mid-range on the US Tour, knows it is going to take his best stuff off the tee to compete.

With a Masters, US Open and British Open on his resume, the PGA Championship is the one major that has eluded the 25-year-old.

"There are some meaty holes out there where you really have to drive the ball well and hit a good long iron into the green," Spieth said.

But it's not why he's downplaying his chances of becoming just the sixth golfer to complete the coveted career grand slam.

The 25-year-old is without a win since last year's Open at Royal Birkdale and has struggled with his usually world class putting recently.

"I like to come in in form, so in some sense I feel under the radar," Spieth said.

"I've kind of felt that way a lot this year, I don't mind it."

Surviving an attempted armed robbery is just one episode that makes Australian club pro Craig Hocknull the most interesting player at this week's US PGA Championship.

The Papua New Guinea-born 43-year-old was one of 20 golfers to qualify through the PGA Professionals Championship for the year's final major at Bellerive Country Club in Missouri.

Although nervous about his major debut, Hocknull says it pales in comparison to a horror night in 1994 while studying at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Hocknull and four roommates were relaxing in their apartment when two gun-wielding assailants attempted to break through the front door.

A quick-thinking Hocknull slammed the door on one of the attacker's arms before a nightmarish phone call to 911.

"That was pretty scary times," Hocknull told AAP.

"Growing up in Australia, I don't even know if I ever saw a gun, but coming to the US is a different story.

"I guess I shouldn't have even opened the door; I'm thankful to be alive.

"I was able to slam the door on his hand and shut the deadbolt."

Hocknull forgot to dial '9' before 911, to route the call outside the university phone line, and so he and four roommates faced a harrowing 30 minutes.

"That was scary for all of us; my teammates came out with baseball bats and a golf club because we though they might try breaking through the window," he said.

"We turned off the lights and stayed away from the windows.

"It felt like forever before the police showed up and we gave statements."

Hocknull was able to move past the experience and has since forged a fascinating path through golf.

He was once a travelling trick-shot artist who produced the Outback Golf Show in 2003 - where he dressed like Crocodile Dundee and performed his skills around the world - before becoming an accomplished instructor in America.

He is a member of the PGA of Australia, America and Canada and in 2016 won the PGA Professionals of Canada Championship.

Hocknull now splits his time between a head coaching role at Saber golf academy in Arizona - which he founded - during the winter and teaching at a private golf club in Utah during summer.

Ranked No.2043 in the world, Hocknull finished tied 35th at last year's NSW Open in Sydney months after making his only US PGA Tour start at the Phoenix Open, where he missed the cut.

"I've never even attended a major championship, let alone play," Hocknull said.

"It's surreal to work hard your whole life and your dream finally comes true."