KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16: Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand took the clubhouse lead with a sizzling seven-under par 65 in a rain-disrupted first round of the Malaysian Open on Thursday.

Thaworn, winner of last season’s Asian Tour Order of Merit title, raced to the top of the leaderboard with a posse of European Tour players in hot pursuit at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

He led by one stroke from Italy’s Francesco Molinari, Welshman Garry Houston, Richard Finch of England and Ireland’s Gary Murphy, who all completed rounds of 66 before play was suspended in mid-afternoon for two hours and 45 minutes due to a thunderstorm.

Thaworn birdied all the par-five holes en route to his score. He had birdies on the second, third, fifth, seventh, 10th, 11th, 17th and 18th, and a bogey on the ninth.

Torrential rain and lightning hit the course in mid-afternoon and the suspension left 63 golfers still stuck in the first round.

But Thaworn could well lose the lead as Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez was hot on his heels and was eight-under with one more hole to complete, when play was stopped due to bad light.

Richard Finch of England, who was among those who had completed their rounds, had a six-under 66.

Leading first-round scores:

65 — Thaworn Wiratchant (THA)

66 — Richard Finch (ENG), Gary Murphy (IRL), Francesco Molinari (ITA), Garry Houston (WAL)

67 — Stephen Dodd (WAL), Fredrik Widmark (SWE), Gary Simpson (AUS)

68 — Jyoti Randhawa (IND), Lu Wen-teh (TPE), Prom Meesawat (THA), Gerry Norquist (USA), Gaurav Ghei (IND)

69 — Marcus Fraser (AUS), Frankie Minoza (PHI), Adam Blyth (AUS), Padraig Harrington (IRL), Anthony Kang (USA), Tom Whitehouse (ENG), Ross Fisher (ENG), Hendrik Buhrmann (RSA), Yeh Wei-tze (TPE), Lin Keng-chi (TPE), Chapchai Nirat (THA)

70 — Chawalit Plaphol (THA), David Carter (ENG), M. Sasidaran (MAS), Lu Wei-lan (TPE), Mahal Pearce (NZL), Andrew Pitts (USA), Marc Warren (SCO), David Griffiths (ENG), Mattias Eliasson (SWE).—AFP