Garcia signed for an opening four-under-par 68 and shares pole position with Melissa Reid from England and Becky Morgan from Scotland, while Bregman sits in the eight-man bus at three under.
Garcia notched a pair of birdies at the third and fourth holes to get her campaign underway.
The 2015 Sunshine Ladies Tour champion added further gains at 11 and 13. She had a slight hiccup at the short 16th, but offset the lone bogey with a birdie at the closing hole.
“I’m really pleased to break par this early in the season,” said the 25-year-old Ebotse golfer.
“It’s funny actually, because the last time a shot a sub-par round on the Ladies European Tour it was also in China at the Xiamen International Open in October last year.
“It was nice to get some early momentum with the birdies, because I like this course. It suits my game and the greens are fantastic; they roll really well. The weather was nice and warm, but the wind came up, which made it slightly tougher off the tees.”
The Wanna Be A Champion player changed to a claw grip about a month ago and believes that made the difference between an over- and under-par round
“I think the biggest difference was on the greens,” Garcia said. “I had only 29 putts today and my average is around 33, so it’s really good to see movement in a positive direction. I was able to start the putts on line and on greens like these, they are going to drop if you start them online.
“I really wasn’t keen to change to the claw grip because I thought it was a cop out, but it definitely has given me more confidence on the greens. I started using it before we went to Morocco but it didn’t work, so I just practiced pace putts here in the practice round, and that’s made the difference.”
Bregman reversed a bogey start with birdie at the third, and birdied nine to turn one under.
The Johannesburg pro took care of a bogey at 10 with birdie at the par five 13th and obliterated a third bogey at 15 with a hat-trick of birdies over the finishing holes.
