The chance of a first tournament win in more than three years looked to be slipping away before Australia's one-time world No.2 steadied to post a third-round three-under-par 67 on Saturday (Sunday AEST).
At 12 under for the championship, Smith will start the final round just one stroke behind American tyro leader Michael La Sasso in a four-way tie for second with Englishmen Richard Bland (65) and Laurie Canter (68) as well as Belgian Thomas Detry (68).
Former Masters champions Sergio Garcia (66) and Bubba Watson (67), Garcia's fellow Spaniard Josele Ballester (65) and South Korean Younghan Song (65) share sixth, two shots off the pace at 11 under.
All up, some 14 players are within three shots of La Sasso entering the final round at The ‌Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield.
Back-to-back individual season champ Jon Rahm is among them after Spain's triple major winner and former world No.1 fired a Saturday 67.
Smith had the chance to take the tournament by the scruff of the neck after collecting three birdies in his first seven holes to seize a share of the lead at 12 under.
Instead, he faltered over the easiest stretch of the course.
He was unable to birdie the short par-four 13th, then made a mess of the par-five 14th, scrambling just to avoid a bogey after leaving his bunker shot caught up in the deep rough greenside.
The one-time world No.2 was left cursing himself after three-putting the 15th for bogey and then missing two makeable birdie putts on 16 and 17.
Smith must have had his heart in mouth when he pulled a drive badly left on the par-five 18th.
But after avoiding the hazard area, he regrouped to pick up a much-needed birdie to pull back within a shot of the lead.
"Pretty solid. It was pretty tricky out there, to be fair," Smith said.
Backing up his second-round 60, the 22-year-old La Sasso briefly hit 14 under to open up a three-shot buffer over Smith before cooling off to give the 2022 British Open champ hope of winning for the first time since LIV Bedminster in August, 2023.
"It's starting to feel nice. I wouldn't say major championship Cameron's come out yet, but it's feeling really close," Smith said.
"The short stuff's starting to feel really nice again, feeling really comfortable off the tee and I just need to clean up some iron stuff and I feel like I'm right there.
"So still lots of hard work to do, but I'm happy where it's heading."
Marc Leishman carded a two-under 68 and is at nine under in equal 16th, with Travis Smyth (68) at six under and Lucas Herbert (71) three shots further back.
Smith's all-Australian Ripper GC rose from fourth to third in the team standings, three strokes behind Rahm's Legion XIII.
"It'd be unreal to finish off the season like that," Smith mused, thinking of the prospect of a Ripper triumph and title double.
"I know we've had a good year this year and to finish it off with a win would be nice."
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