Brisbane golfer Marcus Cain has defied difficult conditions to leapfrog early contenders Peter Senior and Gavin Hills and take the Queensland PGA Championship opening round lead at Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

Gold Coast-based pair Senior and Hills were sitting pretty after firing impressive morning rounds of 64 at the Ipswich Golf Club.

But Cain made light of trying afternoon conditions in which winds gusted up to 20kph across the Emerald Lakes layout to card an opening round of eight-under-par 63.

"If you had to imagine the round you wanted to play in these conditions then this round would be it," said Cain.

It was a welcome change of fortune for Cain who had spent the majority of the year in the United States attempting to qualify for the US PGA second tier Nationwide Tour.

He had spent a frustrating run of Nationwide Tour Monday qualifying events while based at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

"I tried nine Monday qualifiers but missed out by one or two shots nearly every time," he said.

"It has been frustrating because I feel I have been playing well in recent months without making any putts and typically taking 33 putts every time.

"Today, however, I probably had 22 or 23 putts."

Senior and Hills are at seven under, one stroke ahead of fellow Queenslander Adam Blyth in outright fourth.

Victorian Michael Curtain headed a large group at five under thanks to a hole in one on the 13th.

Others at five under were last week's Queensland Open runner-up Brad Kennedy, South Australian Jason Dawes, Brisbane's Shane Tait, Victorian Heath Reed and Ipswich golfer Craig Cork.

The Emerald Lakes layout yielded 42 scores under par among the morning field but only 25 players in the afternoon were able to break par.

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