Malaysian Open: Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee made a dream start to the defence of his Malaysian Open title before a violent thunderstorm derailed Padraig Harrington's challenge.

Jaidee, the former paratrooper, who became the first Thai player to win a European Tour event here 12 months ago, carded six birdies and an eagle in a first-round 64 to set the clubhouse target on eight under par.

His round equalled the course record at Saujana's Palm layout, known as The Cobra, but will not count for record purposes due to the preferred lies in operation.

Sweden's Niclas Fasth carried on from where he left off last week, with the New Zealand Open winner recording a 67 to lie in second place alongside Australia's Jarrod Moseley, Swede Pelle Edberg and Italian Emanuele Canonica.

Ryder Cup duo Paul McGinley and Miguel Angel Jimenez were a shot further back after rounds of 68, alongside Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and England's Simon Dyson.

Harrington was also four under after 13 holes before the storm forced the players off the course at 4 p.m. local time.

When play resumed two hours later, he dropped three shots in his last four holes in the fading light and had to settle for a one-under-par 71. Forty-five players will complete their first round this morning.

"I had a lot of chances, to be honest," admitted the 33-year-old world number eight. "I didn't really take them, and all in all it was not a good day.

"The delay didn't do me any favours. It was a change of momentum, a bit unfortunate but these things happen."

McGinley was pleasantly surprised by his efforts in only his second tournament of the season, especially after an 18-hour flight from California where he finished 30th in the Pebble Beach pro-am won by Phil Mickelson.

The Dubliner underwent a knee operation in November last year and only started hitting balls again two weeks ago.

"I played well and I'm very pleased to get off to a good start," said McGinley, who recovered from a double bogey on the fifth with an eagle on the seventh after a five-wood approach to 10 feet.

"It was very hot, but I much prefer this to the wind and rain. The knee is swollen now but I have to expect that."

Of the other Irish players in the field, Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy were alongside Harrington after 71s, and Damien McGrane was a shot further back.

But Stephen Browne was in the midst of an extraordinary round. The Hermitage golfer opened with a birdie at the 10th, but then had the bizarre sequence from the 14th where he went double bogey, triple bogey, double bogey, birdie, birdie.

When he came off the course after playing 12 holes he was at four over par.

Fasth carded four birdies and an eagle in his 67, but confessed: "I really did not play very well. I missed a lot of fairways and struggled a bit but hung in there and putted well.

"It's a totally different golf course to last week and it's not easy switching. I had two days to adjust and don't think I quite made it.

"I played possibly the best golf I have every played last week, but it's a new week and you are only a winner for a day or so."

The most welcome performance of the day came from Moseley, seventh last week behind Fasth, who lost his card by just €10 last season after going into the final event 114th on the Order of Merit.

After missing the cut in the Madrid Open he had to watch as Richard Sterne, who won the tournament, Wade Ormsby and Robert Karlsson overtook him on the money list, with Karlsson pipping Moseley despite finishing second last.

"I was happy to see the end of the year, that's for sure," said Moseley, who regained his card through the qualifying school. "Last year the attitude wasn't there. I had just had another baby and was back and forward to Australia. I couldn't get anything going, technically I was poor and didn't feel like being there.

"I'm playing much better now after going to see an old coach of mine. I thought I'd go and see him and it's a good thing I did."(British unless stated, Irish in bold)

(45 players to complete first round today)

64 - T Jaidee (Tha).

67 - Niclas Fasth (Swe), Jarrod Moseley (Aus), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Emanuelle Canonica (Ita), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus).

68 - Paul McGinley, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Simon Dyson, Thomas Bjorn (Den).

69 - Corey Harris (US), Richard Moir (Aus), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Anders Hansen (Den), Simon Yates, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Shaifubari Muda (Mal), Henrik Stenson (Swe), Stephen Scahill (Nzl)

70 - Fredrik Henge (Swe), Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Stuart Manley, Wen-Chong Liang (Chn), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Soren Hansen (Den), Keng-Chi Lin (Tpe), Terry Price (Aus), Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa), Sushi Ishigaki (Jpn), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Joon Chung (Kor), Mattias Eliasson (Swe)

71 - Peter Lawrie, Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Ted Oh (Kor), Olle Nordberg (Swe), Anthony Kang (US), Gary Orr, Niki Zitny (Aut), Greg Hanrahan (US), Padraig Harrington, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Periasamy Gunasegaran (Mal), Gary Murphy.

72 - Richard Finch, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Pablo Del Olmo (Mex), Jason Knutzon (US), Ross Bain, Wen-Ko Lin (Tpe), Stephen Dodd, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Sung-Man Lee (Kor), Damien McGrane, Uhno Park (Aus), Clay Devers (US), Gonzalo Fernandez (Spa), Thammanoon Srirot (Tha), Nobuhito Sato (Jpn).

73 - Eddie Lee (Nzl), Angelo Que (Phi), Oliver Wilson, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Chris Williams (Rsa), Simon Hurd, Eiji Mizoguchi (Jpn), Ian Garbutt, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha).

74 - Gwang-Soo Choi (Kor), Joong Kyung Mo (Kor), Brad Kennedy (Aus), Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), Andrew Marshall, Jason Dawes (Aus).

75 - Bryan Saltus (US), Shaaban Hussein (Mal), Kasper Jorgensen (Den), Jonathan Lomas, James Kingston (Rsa), (x) Anis Helmi Abu Hassan (Mal), Gaurav Ghei (Ind), Sam Little, Wook-Soon Kang (Kor), Yuan-Chi Chen (Tpe).

76 - Tse-Peng Chang (Tpe), Alessandro Tadini (Ita), John Bickerton, Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Gary Emerson, Craig Kamps (Rsa), Airil Rizman Zahari (Mal), Scott Taylor (US), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Marcus Both (Aus), Mike Cunning (US).

77 - Gerry Norquist (US), Gary Rusnak (US), (x) Eng-Seng Lim (Mal).

78 - Alistair Presnell (Aus), M Sasidaran (Mal).