Back on one of his favourite courses American Peter Uihleinhas played a brilliant first round to lead the ISPS HANDA Perth International.

Teeing off in the afternoon, Uihlein stunned with his 7-under 65 scored in challenging wind conditions.

"Playing out here, it’s always a treat and it’s one of my favourite courses," said Uihlein.

"It is an Alister Mackenzie course, and we don’t really get that many courses in America ‑‑ obviously we’ve got Augusta and then Cypress, but we don’t really get to play his courses that often."

"It’s always a treat when you get to play them. I think that’s why I enjoy it so much because it’s just a fabulous golf course.  It’s well designed and it’s a challenge and it’s fun."

While Uihlein’s round got off to an awkward start, missing the fairway with his iron shot off the 1^st tee, he was happy to escape with a bogey when it could easily have been a triple.

"I missed the fairway with an iron, which is always awkward.  And then I just kind of got a little bit of a flyer out of the rough," said Uihlein. 

"I hit probably one of the best chips I’ve ever hit in my life.  I was in the trees and I bounced it through the bunker, somehow got on the green to about 12 feet and didn’t hit a good one putt but at least I had a chance."

"I was really staring at 6 or 7 in the face and I was pretty pleased to walk off with a 5."

He quickly recovered to add birdies to his card at the 3^rd, 4^th and 7^th holes before a chip in eagle at the 9^threally ignited his round.

"It was nice to hole one out, it was good," added Uihlein.

"I heard it hit the flag before people kind of stood up and started applauding.  It’s always cool to see the reaction, one of those cool moments."

Finishing with another three birdies on the back-9, Uihlein picked up where he left off after the 2014 ISPS HANDA Perth International when he finished tied 9^th.

Playing in the morning field Indian Shiv Kapur battled through a shoulder injury that almost ruled him out of the tournament to shoot 6-under 66. He is joined by Frenchman Romain Wattel at tied second.

"I was really struggling on the driving range this morning with my shoulder, and the chiropractor here did a great job to get me fit to play, and popped a couple of pills and went out there," said Kapur.

"It got better as I warmed up, but the first few shots that I hit, I couldn’t really hold the club at the top of my backswing.  It seemed to get better."

While Wattel was happy to be back in Australia as a Professional, "I came here, I think eight years ago for the Australian Amateur in Adelaide, and I got a very good picture of Australia, so I thought that would be a good idea to come back."

"But all the time, the tournaments in Australia were not very good on my schedule, and this time, after Malaysia, it was perfect.  So I thought, that’s the one."

Sitting outright fourth after the first round is Rhein Gibson who fired 5-under 67 the day after flying into Perth from the PGA TOUR.

"I only got into town yesterday so this was my first time around the course since last time the tournament was here," said Gibson.

"The trip I just did was a little difficult, in fact I showed up to Sydney not knowing where my bags were on Wednesday and luckily they were there on a different flight."

A group of seven players all shot opening rounds of 4-under 68 to be tied 5^th; Brett Rumford (AUS), Cormac Sharvin (NIR), Scott Arnold (AUS), Anthony Houston (AUS), Todd Sinnott (AUS) and Nick Cullen (AUS).

The second round of the ISPS HANDA Perth International will tee off tomorrow morning at 6.40am with Uihlein in action at Lake Karrinyup Country Club at 7am.