Luiten takes lead in Johor

Joost Luiten’s excellent form continued as he claimed the first round clubhouse lead before bad weather set in at the Iskandar Johor Open.

The 25 year old from the Netherlands has never won on The European Tour, but eight top-15 finishes in his last 14 events suggest that may be about to change.

And he carded a flawless eight under par 63 at Horizon Hills to lead by one from defending champion Padraig Harrington, France’s Grégory Bourdy and Australian Marcus Fraser.

“I played really well in Singapore, which gave me a lot of confidence to carry into this week,” said Luiten, who made eight birdies with no dropped shots. “I've been putting very well lately, and today that was the case again. I made some nice putts, and hopefully that can continue for the next few days.”

Luiten produced a string of outstanding approaches, and ran in four consecutive birdies from the 15th.

He was plagued by a wrist injury for much of 2008 and 2009, but revealed that it no longer causes him concern.

“The wrist feels absolutely fine now - I don't really give it a second thought,” he added.

“I had a good season last year, and this year's been even better. I've come close to winning a few times now, so as long as I stay patient and keep putting myself into contention, hopefully it'll all come together and I can win one.”

At 33rd in The Race to Dubai Luiten is already guaranteed a place in the field for the Dubai World Championship presented by DP World.

But there is still plenty to play for - the top 30 players at the end of the season are exempt for next year’s Open Championship at Lytham St Annes, and the €242,580 first prize this week would put him within touching distance of the top 15 who will share the $7,500,000 bonus pool.

“It's already been a great season, and I'm looking forward to playing Dubai for the first time,” he added. “If I can finish in the top 30 and gain an exemption for The Open, that would round off a great season for me.”

Heavy rainfall and electrical storms forced play to be abandoned for the day, with Sweden’s Daniel Chopra and Myanmar’s Zaw Moe going best of those on the course at five under with four and five holes remaining respectively.

Round one will resume at 7.20am local time on Friday.

Three-time Major winner Harrington is surprisingly only 76th on The Race to Dubai and has plenty of work to do to make the top 60 within the next month.

But the Irishman believes returning to defend a title has helped to bring the best out of his game.

“It's always nice when you come back to defend a title to put in a good showing,” he said.

“It's great to be up near the top of the leaderboard, even though it's early days, and it's even nicer to be playing well. So it's a case of so far, so good.”

The highlight of Fraser’s round came with an eagle from 15 feet at the 18th, but the two-time European Tour winner felt his round could have been even better.

“I played really well,” he said. “I missed a couple of chances to make a really low round but overall I played really good. I showed some signs last week of an improvement and shot a low one today.”

Bourdy won the last of his three European Tour titles in 2009, but the 29 year old believes he is ready to re-enter the winner’s circle.

He said: “I just wish I could shoot that sort of rounds more often! It's a great start to the tournament, and I just hope I can keep it going.

“I felt good at the start of the week, because I feel very confident in my swing.”