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Englishman Paisley takes clubhouse lead in Malaysia

[February 01, 2018] KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Englishman Chris Paisley struck a spotless seven-under-par 65 in hot and humid conditions to take the clubhouse lead on a weather-hit opening day of the Maybank Championship on Thursday.

An hour and 50 minutes of play was lost due to the threat of storms in the afternoon and 40 players will have to return at the Saujana Golf and Country Club in Shah Alam to complete their first round on Friday.

Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera was on six-under with two holes left to complete, alongside another Englishman, David Horsey, who recovered from an opening bogey to end on six-under.

Paisley, who started on the back nine, has been in stellar form in the new year having already claimed his maiden European Tour title at the BMW South African Open and two more top-five finishes.

"It was great and nice to keep the form going," Paisley said.

"I just played really solid, hit it well off the tee so gave myself a lot of wedges and short irons into the greens which were really good and gave myself a lot of birdie chances, couldn't have gone better.

"It's very hot and not much wind, so scoring wise it is quite easy but to keep your focus is quite difficult with how tiring the heat is but it is good fun."

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Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open - Castle Stuart Golf Links, Inverness, Scotland - 9/7/16. England's Chris Paisley in action during the third round. Action Images via Reuters / Jason Cairnduff

Englishman Andrew Johnston, American David Lipksy, India's Arjun Atwal, South Korean Lee Soo-min and French duo Alexander Levy and Romain Wattel completed their rounds to be tied for fourth spot on 67.

Australian Todd Sinnott (70) aced the fourth hole from 195 yards with a seven iron for a hole-in-one.

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Toby Davis)

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