Thais, S’poreans a-coming for CM Cup

KUCHING: The Chief Minister Cup international junior golf tournament scheduled for Nov 28-30 is expected to draw in the cream of junior golfers in the region with perennial powerhouses Thailand and Singapore already confirming their participation.

Kelab Golf Sarawak (KGS) secretary, Shahary Alias said Sarawak, which had been successful playing host for more than 10 years to the tournament, are expected to attract about 150 to 160 participants this year again.

Apar t f rom Thai land and Singapore, the Malaysian Golf Association (Malga) is expected to send a number of entries while Sarawak will have their top players like Leonard Chin and his sister Amanda, who are both playing golf in Australia, local up-and-coming young golfer Abdul Rahim Abd Rahman and Miri golfer Alex Tiong to spearhead the local challenge.

“Sarawak has been very successful in attracting top junior golfers from countries like Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines every year.

“The main attraction is our hospitality as we look after them and also the young golfers who use our tournament for exposure as we have different age groups from eight, 10, 12 to 18 and a special group for 18 and above.

“Also, we can get players from places like Thailand and Singapore due to the accessibility of flights,” said Shahary.

Shahar y said they t r ied t o alternate the venue by hosting the tournament in Miri but did not attract many participants so they decided to revert to the state capital.

The KGS honorary secretary said the Thais who had been runaway winners in all the tournaments organised as the game of golf is high profile in their country with major sponsors like a brewery behind their success.

Malaysia has not found much success in building a broad base for golfers in the country although Malaysian player like Danny Chia has done well in the international pro circuit.

Sabah, he said, has also produced Ben Leong and Nicholas Fung, who are top national juniors on the brink of “breakthrough” in international golf, while in Sarawak, except for a few junior golfers whose father are players themselves, there are a few young players coming to the fore.

He said Miri, which has players like Leonard and Malcolm, has more players coming through the ranks as there is a full-time pro employed to guide the young golfers there.

Posted by OM on 9:22 PM. Filed under Breaking News .You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0