Tim Wilkinson and Peter Wilson share the lead after a first day of the Australian PGA Championship curtailed by lightning.

Wilkinson had already completed a six-under 66 to set the clubhouse pace while Wilson dropped back to that score to join him atop the leaderboard after earlier being eight under thanks largely to a front nine he negotiated in just 29 strokes.

Half of the 156-man field was still on the course when thunderstorms rolled in just after 3pm local time and officials made the decision at 4.45pm to resume play at 5.30am on Friday, with round-two tee times set to be pushed back by an hour.

Australian Wilson largely defied winds which strengthened throughout the day, sizzling around the front nine with birdies at every hole except the second and eighth as he looked to threaten the course record of 63.

But after adding another birdie at the 12th a double bogey at the 13th halted his charge and he had just parred the 14th when the suspension came, leaving him level with 30-year-old New Zealander Wilkinson.

2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and Wilkinson's compatriot Richard Lee both shot 67 and have since been joined at five under by two-time champion Peter Senior, who has played 11 holes so far.

Fresh from his first season on the US PGA Tour, which included three top-five finishes, Wilkinson went out in 31 and was seven-under at one point.

He grabbed birdies at the first two holes, went to the turn with three more in a row and picked up further shots at the 12th and 14th to open up a two-shot lead, but his sole blemish for the day halved his lead at that point.

"Yeah it was good, I wanted to get off to a good start because the morning conditions are always a little bit calmer," Wilkinson said.

"I birdied the first two holes and then missed a couple of easy birdies on four and five, I was a little bit annoyed.

"(It was) solid, if I could do that for three more days I'd be happy. It was pretty straightforward, I hit a lot of good shots and there's just the one tee shot on the last I'd like back, that's it."

Lee had a flawless round that included five birdies while Ogilvy collected an eagle and three birdies through his first 10 holes, and conceded he could have gone even lower as he came home with eight pars.

"I started very well, I was three-under after three which is always a nice way to start," Ogilvy said.

"I played really solid on the front nine, not so solid on the back nine, but it was getting pretty windy in the last eight or nine holes."

One shot further back thanks to a 68 is Peter Nolan, and Mathew Goggin is also four-under at the turn, while Brett Rumford, 2006 Australian Open winner John Senden, Steve Collins, Martin Dive and Mahal Pearce all signed for 69s.

Defending champion Peter Lonard shot 70 while American John Daly hit 71.

Latest first-round scores (Aus unless stated, par 72):

Play suspended due to lightning strikes and will be resumed on Friday morning

66 Tim Wilkinson (Nzl)

67 Richard Lee (Nzl), Geoff Ogilvy

68 Peter Nolan

69 Brett Rumford, Mahal Pearce (Nzl), John Senden, Steve Collins, Martin Dive

70 Michael Sim, Aron Price, Scott Strange, Steven Bowditch, Terry Pilkadaris, Peter Lonard

71 Chris Gaunt, Michael Brennan, Michael Lambert, Michael McGrath, Mark Brown (USA), John Daly (USA), Aaron Black, Craig Parry, Steven Conran

72 Rudi Bezuidenhout, Chris Downes, Anthony Summers, Doug Holloway (Nzl), David McKenzie, Nathan Main, Marc Leishman, Adam Le Vesconte, Richard Green, Ashley Hall

73 Scott Laycock, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Darren Beck, Rowan Beste, Nigel Stivala, Ryan Haywood, David Diaz, Brad Lamb, Scott Hend, Ben Bloomfield, Josh Lane

74 Leigh McKechnie, Adam Porker, Tony Carolan, Ben Wharton, Stephen Dartnell, Kurt Barnes, Terry Price, Kim Felton, Andrew Searle

75 Matthew Guyatt, Aaron Pike, Peter Cooke, Adam Wilcox, Matthew Griffin

76 Graydon Woolridge, Julian Reynolds, Michael Hendry (Nzl), Andrew Tschudin, Brenton Fowler, Mark Bryant, Craig Spence, Andre Stolz, John Wade, Jens Nilsson (Swe)

77 Ben Bunny

78 Gavin Beck, Richie Gallichan, Mathew Holten (Nzl)

79 Shane Baxter

80 Josh Carmichael

83 Kris Barkaway

86 Pat Giles, Robin Hodgetts (Rsa)