Australians David Bransdon and Won Joon Lee lead the BMW New Zealand Open following the first round in Queenstown.

Playing in the afternoon field at The Hills, Bransdon and Lee each fired rounds of 9-under 63 to ensure they lead the field by two shots.

Bransdon attributed his round to a hot putter, crediting his good friend and NZ PGA champion Matt Millar for his form with the flat stick.

"Once you start getting the rhythm of the round going and holing a few putts, a low one’s always on the cards because you’re feeling confident," said Bransdon.

"Seeing the ball go in – there’s no better feeling in golf."

"I owe Matty (Millar) a lot. He’s helped me a lot over the last couple of years with my short game."

However it let him down when his birdie putt to equal the course record finished agonisingly short.

It’s a fantastic start to the tournament for Lee who only managed eight practice holes due to his golf clubs being left in Sydney.

"I hadn’t practiced for a few days so I didn’t expect to play as well as I did," said Lee.

"I had trouble checking-in in Sydney and the airline I travelled with only flew every second day."

"So I got my clubs two days late, at 4pm yesterday."

However Lee doesn’t believe he will be at a disadvantage when he plays Millbrook Resort tomorrow.

"I haven’t played Millbrook, I know it’s five minutes down the road," added Lee.

"The yardage books are done so well these days it doesn’t make much difference."

"I’ll go there tomorrow morning and see how I go."

Sitting two shots off the pace is Queenslander Matthew Guyatt with Aaron Pike, Brad Kennedy and Nick Cullen rounding out the top-5 on the leaderboard with 6-under 66.

All players in the top-5 played The Hills in the first round.

Anthony Brown had the best round of the day at Millbrook Resort, a 5-under 67 placing him tied 7^th on the leaderboard.

The other highlight of the day belongs to New South Welshman Scott Arnold who aced the 178m par-3 7^th using his 6-iron.

Meanwhile, Won Joon Lee also has the lead in the Pro-Am teams event.  Lee and his playing partner Andrew Clements combined for a 14-under the card, to be two shots clear of the field.

Former All Black first five Andrew Mehrtens holds the bragging rights amongst the celebrity golfers after the opening round.

Mehrtens and Aussie Professional Paul Spargo are at 9-under the card, one clear of Shane Warne and Peter O’Malley in the ANZ Celebrity Challenge.

Brian Lara and Michael Long are one shot further back.

Round 1 Highlights – 2015 BMW New Zealand Open: http://t.co/oYAoznWLPj via @YouTube

— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) March 12, 2015