Former New Zealand Open winner Jake Higginbottom has rocketed to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the PGA Tour China Global qualifying tournament.

Higginbottom carded six birdies and an eagle in a flawless 64 to be four shots ahead of his nearest challengers.

Higginbottom is one of seven Australians teeing up in the second Global Qualifying tournament for players not from China. A China only event will be staged next week.

Do Eun An (T8), Jake Stirling (T15), Taylor Cooper (T26), Brenton Parrish (T36), and Dylan Stollery and Ryan Laird (T71) are the others teeing up.

The top-15 after four rounds earn playing rights to the 12 event PGA Tour China which offers Web.com Tour cards to the top-5 earners at season’s end.