Warren surges into Malaysia lead

Marc Warren took advantage of the favourable early conditions to fire a brilliant 63 and take the first-round lead at the Maybank Championship.

The Scot went out in the third group of the day from the first and turned in 30 before the winds began to get up, coming home in 33 to get to nine under and open up a two-shot advantage.

Thai teenager Phachara Khongwatmai was his nearest challenger, a shot clear of Masters Tournament champion Danny Willett, American Peter Uihlein, local favourite Arie Irawan, Australian Sam Brazel, German Marcel Siem and India's Gaganjeet Bhullar.

Warren looked set for a struggle to keep his playing privileges last season before a fifth-placed finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship set up an impressive finish to the campaign.

He missed the cut at last week's Omega Dubai Desert Classic but the three-time winner bounced back brilliantly at Saujana Golf and Country Club to lead the way.

"Obviously it was good today, it was a good tee-time nice and early before the wind picks up," he said.

"I got off to a really nice start, six under for the first nine holes. Once the wind picked up on the back nine it was just a case of staying solid and hitting the greens.

"More of the same tomorrow. My iron play was very good today and recently I have been making a lot of birdies but a lot of mistakes as well. It was nice to get around without a bogey.

"Last week I made 11 birdies in two days and missed the cut so it’s just a matter of trying to keep the positive stuff going, making the birdies, and cutting out the slack stuff which was good today."

It’s just a matter of trying to keep the positive stuff going, making the birdies, and cutting out the slack stuff which was good today - Marc Warren

Warren got off to a quick start, birdieing the first, and he added further gains on the third, fourth and sixth before an eagle on the par five eighth saw him jump out into the lead.

He put his tee-shot on the par three 12th to ten feet for another birdie and when he holed from ten feet on the 14th, he looked to be in total control.

Khongwatmai is one of the hottest young talents in Asia, however, and he started making birdies to reel the leader in.

The 17 year old became the youngest ever winner of a professional tournament when he won the Singha Hua Hin Open on the ASEAN PGA Tour at the age of just 14 in 2013, and showed no nerves in just his seventh European Tour event.

He made birdies on the 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th to turn in 32 before putts of eight, 20 and eight feet on the fourth, fifth and sixth catapulted him up the leaderboard.

Another gain on the eighth gave him a share of the lead but he bogeyed his final hole and a Warren birdie on the 17th made the lead two shots.

Willett, Uihlein and Irawan were all bogey-free in the morning before Brazel, Siem and Bhullar joined them in the tougher afternoon conditions.

Siem was also blemish-free while Bhullar made one bogey and UBS Hong Kong Open champion Brazel had two on his card.

Dane Lasse Jensen and South Korea's Soomin Lee were then at five under, a shot clear of Gavin Green, Robert Karlsson, K.T. Kim, Richard T Lee, David Lipsky, Shubhankar Sharma, Niall Turner and Romain Wattel.