David Smail was able to hang onto his early lead in the New Zealand Open at the Hills after finishing at seven-under-par during the morning on the opening day of play.

The 39-year-old birdied his first two holes of the day before hitting five more in his bogey-free 65 in perfect conditions at the course in Arrowtown near Queenstown.

Smail managed to hold onto his one-shot lead over American D.J. Brigman and Australian Andrew Bonhomme who finished their rounds at six-under despite a large number of players sinking a lot of birdies later in the day.

Brigman sunk seven birdies with one bogey while Bonhomme went around the course without a bogey, picking up six birdies in a solid round.

Brigman, who played alongside Smail during the day, said the Kiwi led the way through the course with the playing group all performing exceptionally well.

"We had a really good group, David Smail played really well and we had momentum going as a group and carried it through the round," said the American.

"I don't know what our best-ball would have been but I think we birdied every hole."

Phil Tataurangi was the next best of the Kiwis to be at four-under in a share for 10th after 13 holes, one-shot ahead of Josh Geary, the best Kiwi in the 2009 Open, who finished his round tied for 25th with his score of 69.

New Zealander's Grant Waite and 2009 New Zealand PGA winner Steve Alker both finished their rounds at two-under. Waite dropped a shot on his last hole of the day after hitting his second shot from the rough far too hard and having to settle for a disappointing bogey on the par five 18th.

Australian hopeful Peter Lonard, desperate to reclaim his United States PGA Tour card, got himself off to a much slower start to be sitting at one-under after his opening day to be tied for 61st after his one-under-par round.

American Jason Gore got off to a nightmare start, hitting two bogeys and a double bogey to be sitting last on the leaderboard after his first nine holes before bouncing back with six birdies in a row on the front nine.

Gore, who is hoping to reclaim his United States PGA Tour card this year, finished the day at two-under to be tied for 42nd.

from pgatour.com.au

American Craig Kanada had the worst round of the day after six bogeys and a double bogey to end up in outright last place on seven over par.

The second round gets underway at 7.10am on Friday with the perfect weather expected to stick around, promising plenty of low scores in the race to avoid the cut.