Jason Norris has returned to New Caledonia and once again
finds himself on top of the South Pacific Open Championship leaderboard.

Norris, who is a regular to Noumea, is firmly placed at the
top of the leaderboard and out of all players competing here this week he has
recorded the most top-10 results.

Three times he has been around the mark but hasn’t managed
to walk away with the win.

However, this year there is a lot on the line with Norris
desperate to win the South Pacific Open to secure his future on the ISPS HANDA
PGA Tour of Australasia.

"I would love to win; I need to win to get exemptions into
tournaments for the rest of the year," said Norris.

"I probably won’t get into the Australian PGA Championship
so I desperately need to win."

"But I can’t think about that right now. There is a lot of
golf to come and a lot of good players here. I could play well for the rest of
the week and finish third, you just never know in golf."

Happy with how he has started the tournament, seven birdies
and a lone bogey sees Norris leading after the morning field.

"I am very happy, it was a good day. I played great, the
front-9, I played a perfect 9 holes really. I hit a lot of good shots, straight
at the pins and putted well too," added Norris.

I had a three putt on the 10^th, which was my only
blemish. I struggled a little bit on the last few holes, I hit a poor shot on
the last but I got it up and down for par."

Norris has played the South Pacific Open Championship every
year since it joined the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, his course
knowledge is a clear advantage.

"I love coming here. I have some great friends here, the
people are awesome and the course is great. It’s really tight, if you hit a bad
shot, you lose your ball and get big penalties," added Norris.

"You need to commit to your shots. There are so many tough
tee shots, it’s so easy to steer your ball into the water and make a double."

"I am playing well enough that if I commit to my shots I will keep shooting good scores."  

After the morning field Norris holds a two shot advantage
over Adam Blyth, Ben Clementson and Pieter Zwart.

The afternoon field is now on course with rookie
Pro Jake McLeod making a run at Norris. He is 4-under after 6 holes thanks to
back-to-back eagles on the par-5 14^th and par-4 15^th.