The Australian and England's Lee Westwood were at one-under before play was called.
Smith was through 16 holes before play was halted, with Westwood through 15. Also tied for first were Talor Gooch (through 10 holes), Joaquin Niemann of Chile (16 holes) and Branden Grace of South Africa (16 holes).
"It was windy the whole day really and got up the last probably couple of hours," Smith said of gusts that reached 33 mph. "Yeah, just kind of had to deal with it and get on with it. It was very tricky out there."
First-round play is set to resume at 8am local time Saturday with the second round immediately to follow.
Smith was at four under through 14 holes before he started to struggle with the wind, collecting a double-bogey five at the par-3 15th hole and a bogey at the par-4 16th.
"It was definitely getting to a stage with three or four holes to go that everyone was pretty tired out there and angry to be honest," Smith said.
"It was a very frustrating day. ... You can play this golf course with no wind and it's brutal. When you get 30-mph gusts, it's definitely not an easy place to get around."
Westwood also was at four under through his first seven holes, but his hot start was disrupted by a double bogey at No.8, followed by a bogey at No.11. He made par on his final four holes before play was halted.
Niemann, who has won four times already this season, had a birdie at No.4 before making 12 consecutive pars when play was stopped.
Bryson DeChambeau finished his round at even par and was tied for second place with Spain's Jon Rahm, who was through 14 holes.
A group of 10 sat another shot behind at one over, including Phil Mickelson and United States Ryder Cup hopeful Patrick Reed.
DeChambeau had three birdies with three bogeys and was at one-under for the round before a bogey six at the 17th.
Reed is coming off his first LIV victory on June 29 at LIV Golf Dallas at Carrollton, Texas, winning in a playoff over England's Paul Casey, Japan's Jinichiro Kozuma and South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen.
Defending champion Sergio Garcia of Spain was in a logjam at two over through 14 holes along with Australian Matt Jones (five holes).
Marc Leishman was at four over after five holes, while Lucas Herbert was two shots further back after five holes, too.
Play was suspended at 5:07 pm local time and did not resume.
This is the first European stop on the 2025 LIV Golf calendar.
