Matthew Millar and James Nitties sit atop the leaderboard at the South Pacific Open following the morning field of the first round.

With rounds of 6-under 65 the pair both found plenty of
birdies at Tina Golf Course, as did the rest of the field which saw plenty of
low numbers being scored in the calm morning conditions.

A hot putter for both Nitties and Millar was the secret to
their rounds today.

""I putted really well. I had been putting pretty ordinary
the last few weeks which isn’t usually my thing, and I thought oh no this isn’t
good. This is a golf course where you need to putt well and I certainly bounced
back well today so it was good," said Millar who has finished in the top-10 in
five of the six tournaments he has played on the PGA Tour of Australasia this
year.

"I guess I had a couple of light bulb moments over the time
off and having to go to Q-School was a good kick up the backside."

"I have just come out and believed more in the way I play
and not worried about the way other people play. Hopefully I can continue it
through until the end of the year."

Even Millar’s playing partner, Matt Guyatt who had a round
of 5-under 66, was impressed with the putting display.

"Playing with Matty (Millar) it was great to watch because
he holed everything. He putted exceptionally well, it was really nice to watch
the ball go in and we just fed off each other," said Guyatt.

"I played really good from the get go and only missed a
couple of greens all day so it was just a matter of converting a few chances
which I was able to do."

Joining Guyatt on 5-under the card and tied third was Daniel
Popovic, who is competing for the first time since breaking his ankle.

"I was being very silly in the car park of my home club and
my good friend Ryan Lynch and I ended up being on our sides with a golf cart on
top of us," said Popovic of the accident that sidelined him.

"I would say it’s close to being 100%, but as you can see it’s
very swollen on the sides. Rehab was very hard, I was in tears a couple of
times with my physician, but we ended up getting through it."

"It took close to two months before I hit a golf ball again
and that was just putting and chipping. I have only started playing in the last
month and it’s started to come good and hopefully the results can keep coming
the way they have today."

New Zealander Jared Pender rounds out the trio tied for
third with relaxation top of his mind after his opening round.

"I played here last year and I started off alright as well, the
energy levels just fell off in the third round so I hope I can keep them up
this year," said Pender.

"I will probably just go back to my billet; they live on the
7^th hole. I’ll probably have a couple of quiet beers and they have a
real good pool so I might go swimming."

The afternoon field is now on course.