New Zealand Open Champion Daniel Nisbet lit up the Palmerston Golf Course as he fired into the early lead at the MMC Northern Territory PGA Championship.

Teeing off the 10^th hole in the morning field; Nisbet cruised around the back-9 in 2-under the card.

But it was his second nine, the front-9, where he really caught fire. Recording four consecutive birdies the Queenslander was 6-under before adding a final birdie to his card at the 9^th hole to sign for an opening round of 7-under 64.

“I was a bit aggressive out there and it paid off. I was hitting my driver really well so I am happy,” said Nisbet, who was bogey-free.

Today’s performance came as somewhat of a surprise for Nisbet who has missed the cut in this tournament the past two years.

“I was saying in the lead up that I have never played that well here and I have missed the cut. So it was nice to get the monkey off my back and shoot a low one. Hopefully, I can do it another three times,” added Nisbet.

“Looking back at the New Zealand Open, I hadn’t had the best results there before the win either so I think coming in with lower expectations, taking it as it comes and not putting too much pressure on myself is paying dividends.”

Playing in the afternoon field, 23-year-old Kade McBride pushed through heat exhaustion to shoot 6-under 65.

“I think the Darwin heat is getting to me, I hit a wall on the back-9 but I got some good advice to take hydralyte and that got me going again,” said McBride.

“I am happy with how I handled the back-9, it got pretty tough out there but I managed to salvage it pretty well and came home with a good score.”

South Australian Peter Cooke, who fired 5-under 66, had to forgo a practice round when his golf clubs didn’t arrive until the eve of the tournament.

“My clubs didn’t arrive on my flight Tuesday night but luckily they arrived last night. I didn’t get to do any practice so I was lucky that I managed to pull something out this morning,” said Cooke.

“I had done a lot of work before the tournament and have been playing nicely so I didn’t really have a reason to worry too much.”

Joining Cooke, tied third on the leaderboard, is Damien Jordan who enjoyed a good day with the flat stick.

“That’s the best start that I have had for a while so I am hoping to keep this putter hot,” said Jordan.

“I sunk a lot of good putts out there, a couple that I wasn’t expecting, so I just need to keep that momentum going.”

Jordan, who served two tours of Iraq with the Australian Army, was quick to thank the 25 American Marines who are volunteering at the tournament this week whilst deployed in Darwin for Exercise Pitch Black, an international air force exercise held in the Top End every two years.

“It was cool to see a few of the Marines around the course. I spent a bit of time with them in Iraq, they are good lads,” added Jordan.

“It’s great that they and all the volunteers are able to come and help with the tournament, so thanks to everyone involved.”

Also opening with 5-under the card were Michael Sim (WA), Adam Burdett (VIC), Brad Moules (SA) and Campbell Rawson (NZ).

Defending champion Travis Smyth had an interesting day on course, finding just three fairways the rookie pro managed to shoot 4-under 67 which featured a lone bogey.

“I wanted to get off to a good start like last year and I think 4-under has met that expectation,” said Smyth.

“I wasn’t that far off but I only hit three fairways. The trees really overhang on this course so I was playing a lot of punch, low fade and low draw shots.

“I was very happy with how I scrambled because it could have been a lot of bogeys out here but I only made one.”

Joining Smyth on 4-under the card and rounding out the top-10 are Tim Stewart (NSW), Jack Wilson (VIC), Maverick Antcliff (QLD), Jake Higginbottom (NSW), Braden Becker (WA) and Scott Arnold (NSW).

Queenslander Daniel Nisbet has won the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open.

Being played across Millbrook Resort and The Hills, Nisbet fired rounds of 63, 66, 67 and 62 for a tournament total 27-under 258 to win the title by two shots.

Nisbet, who started the day six shots behind Terry Pilkadaris came out firing, needing a low round to grab victory. By the 16^th hole he had over taken Pilkadaris thanks to six birdies and an eagle. A further birdie at the 17^th and a par at the 18^th sealed the title for the 27 year old.

This becomes Nisbet’s first victory on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and adds to his 2016 win on the PGA TOUR China.

More to come.

A stunning Sunday 62 has seen Queenslander Daniel Nisbet become the 99th winner of the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open.

Nisbet ran down West Australian Terry Pilkadaris’ five shot overnight lead with an eagle and four straight birdies on the back-9 to finish on 27-under 258 with rounds of 63, 66, 67, 62.

Nisbet’s four round total saw him break the tournament low score, 26-under, set by the late Kel Nagle in 1964.

“We have some great family ties with Kel Nagle. One of my neighbours who recently passed was a great friend with Kel and they kept him updated with my very junior golf. It is a surreal thing to be put up against him and beat his record when there is so much extended family history with him,” said Nisbet.

“I’ve been aggressive all week so I just wanted to stay aggressive and attack the pins and I just wanted to hole a few more putts.”

Nisbet had eaten into Pilkadaris’ buffer over the first-9 holes, but it looked as if he was starting to run out of time to haul him in.

An eagle on the 460m par-5 10th hole for the second time in as many rounds helped Nisbet to a share of the lead, before a blistering four birdie finish secured him the Brodie Breeze trophy and a rousing round of applause from the crowd surrounding Millbrook Resort’s island 18th green.

The win is a deserved reward for the hard work Nisbet has been putting in with his team.

“I played really well this week; I played really well two weeks prior as well. What this leads to in the future, I don’t know,” added Nisbet.

“My coach, Richard Woodhouse, my wife Ashley, she does all my training for me, all my programmes – we just want to keep doing the same thing, it’s working at the moment. Hopefully I’ll get a few more starts out of this win and try and replicate it.”

Nisbet collects AU$191,522.61 for the biggest win of his career as well as three guaranteed starts on the Japan Tour, the rest of this season and the next on the Asian Tour and through until the end of 2020 on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia.

Pilkadaris began the day hoping to break a 13-year winning drought which had included six runner-up finishes.

Having dined out on a birdie buffet for most of the week, he had to wait until the 11th hole before he recorded his first red number and then was helpless to stop Nisbet from running away from him over the final four holes, finishing in second place at 25-under the card.

“I didn’t make enough birdies, it’s as simple as that. I didn’t make any mistakes, just didn’t hole the 10 footers that I had been making,” said Pilkadaris.

“At the start of the week if you’d said I’d shoot 25-under, you’d be like ‘yeah I’ll take that’. It’s disappointing not to win, but 62 to beat you, it’s one of those things.

“On a five shot lead, you know with good weather conditions that someone is going to go low. I thought I plotted my way around the course really well, gave myself the chances, I just didn’t hole the putts.”

American Jarin Todd finished third on 22-under the card while a shot further back and rounding out the top-5 was Kurt Kitayama (USA), David Bransdon (VIC) and Callan O’Reilly (NSW).

The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia will now take a break until April when it travels to Royal Port Moresby Golf Club for the SP Brewery PNG Open Championship.

All the pressure was on the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open field during the opening round in Queenstown, with benign conditions making good scoring crucial.

Queenslander Daniel Nisbet, United States professional Jarin Todd and Japan’s Tatsuya Kodai made the most of welcoming greens freshened up by morning drizzle.

Nisbet ran in six birdies on the back-9 at The Hills, while Kodai also came alive with some music of his own at The Hills for 63, and a similarly faultless round.

Asian Tour player Todd scored eight birdies over 11 holes at the par-71 Millbrook Resort.

Kodai, a previous winner on the Japan Tour, set about attacking pins from the fairway.

“I enjoyed playing with this pro-am format, which led to today’s score. The course will change tomorrow, but I want to aim for a big score,” said Kodai.

Nisbet, who first came to Queenstown as a caddy in 2010, was also happy to make the most of the limp pin flags.

“It was a pretty solid day, just keeping bogeys off the card. It is always a goal to go bogey-free and then get a couple of close ones which were a bonus,” he said.

“The par-3 16th is usually my nemesis, but I hit it into two inches today. It was nice to walk off that hole with a two instead of a lot more, like I usually do.”

Todd won’t be regretting his decision to come to New Zealand after being handed a flyer by New Zealand Open tournament promoter Michael Glading in Indonesia, even if it wasn’t the perfect opening round.

“I didn’t drive it very good. I started on 10 and I almost made it on both par-3s so that gave me some good momentum going into the back-9 and I rolled in some putts. I got a little lucky on the par-5 when I hit a bad drive but was able to make par,” he said.

“The conditions are perfect, which is why there are so many low scores. I am looking forward to playing The Hills tomorrow. I had a blast in my practice round there on Tuesday. It should be fun.”

Andrew Dodt, a runner-up at the 2010 New Zealand Open and sixth last year, was an early frontrunner, his putter eventually glowing red hot with five birdies and an eagle for a 29 on the back-9 to finish 8-under the card.

“It’s all playing well; it’s not going to get any easier than it is right now. You had to put the foot down today. The greens are pure, where you hit the putt that’s where it will stay,” said Dodt, who finished a shot behind the leaders and tied with fellow Australians Andrew Martin and Travis Smyth.

Aucklander Harry Bateman is the leading New Zealander, at 7-under the card and tied for seventh, courtesy of an eagle and a raging front-9.

“I started pretty wobbly. I hit it into the hazard on the first hole (10th) and scratched my way round the rest of the nine. I hit one in the water on my final hole,” said Bateman.

“I made an eagle on the 17th and then caught fire on that front-9 and came home in 29.”

Japan’s Shoukun Yamashita, playing as a paying amateur in the pro-am format, made the perfect start when he holed out with his first shot of the day at The Hills.

Yamashita’s ace came with a rescue club on the 142m par-4 10th, securing him free entry into next year’s centenary event.

The second round of the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open will tee off at 7.30am.