Niall Turner turned up the heat in Malaysia this morning, shooting an opening 68 in the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur.  Starting on the 10th tee, Niall opened with a birdie and followed that with five pars before he struck with three more birdies on the bounce.  His only bogey happened on the 4th (his 13th hole) but he bounced back with a birdie on his 17th hole.  A final par meant he signed for a 68 and the -4 total sees him 11th place alongside Robert Karlsson and six others.

The Muskerry member is playing the event which is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the European Tour.  He is best placed Irish golfer going into day two, and has an early tee time tomorrow, 1.20am Irish time.

After making the cut last week in Bangladesh, Turner hit form and shot two successive rounds of 68 on Saturday and Sunday to climb up the leaderboard.  The four rounds saw Turner finish in the top 15 and take home over $4,000 in prize-money.  More importantly the four rounds gave the Waterfall native a great chance to sharpen his game and play his way into form for this weeks $3m event.

Turner returned to tour action in January after missing much of 2015 with a reoccurrence of a previous hip injury.  Luckily for Turner he was granted a medical exemption which meant that he has the same status as his 2015 tour card.  A good result tomorrow will see make the cut and will bring another payday on Sunday.  With this week’s event counting toward the Asian and European money lists, there’s a strong incentive to play well.