Olympian Scott Hend bravely fought through a bout of food poisoning to post an impressive top 10 finish at the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

The 43-year-old spent all day Monday in bed and was only partially recovered by the time his Thursday tee time came around, a 4-over front nine hardly the ideal start.

But Hend battled hard and as his health improved throughout the week so, too did his scoring, a Saturday 63 the highlight as he stormed to a T7 finish.

"My ribs are no good from throwing up," Hend told the Asian Tour website after finishing play Sunday.

"I had no strength at all, so it took me a fair while to get over it. It is a pretty ordinary case but obviously on the weekend, I was feeling much better and back to full strength again."

"To sort of recover this quick, it’s pretty good. It’s just unfortunate that I was the one who got sick."

The strong play increased the Queenslander’s lead at the top of the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, his $225,750 cheque taking him to $996,592 in earnings for the year.

Top Australian honours for the week went to Marc Leishman who finished two shots better than Hend and two places higher on the leaderboard.

Leishman, who would normally be taking a break from the game at this time of year, jumped into the fray with a second round 65 and a final round 66, which moved him four places up the standings to outright fifth.

His decision to play this week in order to get a strong start to next year’s FedEx Cup paid dividends, the Warrnambool native is now projected 13th in the standings.

Aaron Baddeley and Adam Scott were next best behind Hend at T10, both finishing 13-under the card for the week and the last of the Australians in double digits under par.

Baddeley’s opening 67 was his best of the week though the Victorian played steady golf following with scores of 71-69-68.

For Adam Scott there was no repeat of last year’s fireworks where a final round 63 vaulted him within one of winning the tournament.

The 2013 Masters Champion was solid if not spectacular at the TPC Kuala Lumpur layout, his Saturday round of 66 was the highlight of the week.

Marcus Fraser and John Senden rounded out the Australian challenge, although neither ever got going for the week.

Fraser blamed a cold putter for scores of 75-69-71-71 to be T60 while Senden never broke 70 for the week posting 75-70-71-72.