Midway through the third round, the 23-year-old appeared to have played his way out of a successful defence of the title he won last year as he dropped four shots in three holes before fighting back with five consecutive birdies to end the round.

Still, it left him four strokes behind 54-hole leader India’s Anirban Lahiri, who was looking for his maiden PGA Tour victory.

But Thomas produced the low round of the tournament when he needed it most, adding his name to the mix of contenders with five front nine birdies to be out in 31. He added three more birdies, at the 10th, 16th and 17th holes, to sign for a flawless 64 and 23 under total, which couldn’t be matched.

FINAL LEADERBOARD

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (66) was three strokes back in second place, while fellow American Derek Fathauer (67) had his best ever PGA Tour finish, grabbing a share of third place alongside Lahiri at 19 under.

Thomas, who defeated Adam Scott by a single stroke to win the title in 2015, is the second player to successfully defend the CIMB title with US Ryder Cup player Ryan Moore completing the feat in 2013 and 2014.

“I was playing really well all week. I just had a little stretch there yesterday where I played really poorly,” Thomas said. “But Jimmy (Johnson, his caddie) did an unbelievable job this week keeping me calm when it got tough yesterday, we stuck to our game plan and I made some putts.”

The Alabaman said he believed the five birdies to close out his third round played as much a part of his win as the eight birdies for his closing round.

“I felt like that was maybe the biggest five holes I've ever played in my life, even more so than last year, because it gave me a chance,” he said. “If I'm going into today eight or nine back, I have no chance.”

He added that the TPC Kuala Lumpur course really suited his eye and he was confident he could shoot a low round to get into contention.

“I think the main thing right now is that I just played really well this week,” he said. “I feel like I would have played a lot of courses really well but this place obviously suits my eye, and I think the fact that there's a lot of wedges and scoring clubs bodes well for me. I feel like it's a very strong part of my game and making a lot of birdies is something I like to do, as well.”

Marc Leishman was the best of the Aussies despite not having played golf for a month. PHOTO: Stanley Chou/Getty Images.

Victoria’s Marc Leishman surged into outright fifth place with a closing six under 66, which netted his biggest cheque this year on the PGA Tour. He led a quartet of Aussies who snared a top-10 finish with Scott Hend (67) tied 7th, Aaron Baddeley (68) and Adam Scott (70) sharing tenth place with five other players.

Leishman said he was pleased with his finish after not playing for a month.

“I’m happy with the way I played,” he said. “Probably yesterday would have liked to have a few shots back. Feel like I threw a few shots away, but for not having picked up a club for a month, not having my clubs till Wednesday night and not getting a practice round or anything, it was a pretty good week.”