Scott Piercy leads CIMB Classic in Malaysia by three strokes

Scott Piercy carded 10 birdies in a flawless round of 62 to take a three shot lead at the PGA Tour's CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

Piercy started as he meant to go on, picking up shots at the first three holes at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, and he finished in style to claim a handy advantage on Japan's Hideki Matsuyama.

The 36-year-old, who won the 2015 Barbasol Championship, looked in complete control of his game and reached the turn in 31.

Piercy started the back nine with a birdie at the 10th and picked up further shots at 13 and 14 before closing his round with back-to-back birdies.

In glorious conditions for scoring - 67 of the 78 players shot level-par or better - Matsuyama also took advantage to claim second place on his own.

Starting his round at the 10th, Matsuyama had birdies at four of his first six holes, although he did drop his only shot of the day at the 13th during that run.

But three more birdies coming home meant a fine round of 65 and a good start to the week in the limited-field event.

Five players are tied for third place after shooting rounds of 66; American trio Jason Gore, Charles Howell III and Keegan Bradley along with Germany's Alex Cejka and Cameron Smith from Australia.

And defending champion Ryan Moore, who is looking to complete a hat-trick in the event, is in a six-man group on five-under along with in-form American Kevin Na, Spencer Levin, Morgan Hoffmann, Matt Jones and Brendan Steele.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington opened his challenge with five birdies in a four-under round of 68, the same score as America's Scott Brown, although he had a little more to celebrate.

Brown was sitting on two-under when he reached the 15th, where he sailed his tee-shot over the lake and into the hole on its second bounce, winning a BMW sports car for his effort.

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