KUCHING: The Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM)-Maybank Tour Players Championship, which offers RM300,000 in prize money, will serve as an entry path for local professional golfers to participate in next year’s Maybank Malaysian Open (MMO).
Leveraging on its title sponsorship of the MMO, and in an effort to help develop local professionals, Maybank will award a wild card slot to the winner of the PGM-Maybank Tour Players’ Championship to enable the lucky recipient to gain experience participating in a world class tournament.
The PGM Maybank Tour Players’ Championship, which is open only to local professional golfers, will be held from yesterday until this Saturday at the Impian Golf and Country Club in Kajang, Selangor.
It is the final leg and grand finale of the PGM Tour series for 2012 and is considered the climax of a year-long battle among Malaysian professional golfers that will be the decider for the PGM Tour Order of Merit standings.
R Nachimuthu won the coveted PGM Tour Order of Merit 2011 and season-ending PGM Kinrara Masters last year.
A total of around 130 golfers have qualified for the final tournament following a series of 20 tournaments which have been organised throughout the year, including seven tournaments organised together with the Asian Development Tour (ADT), the feeder tour for the Asian Tour.
Out of the number who qualified, 110 of them will be participating in this prestigious event.
In total, some RM3.244 million in cash has been awarded in prize money to participants of the PGM Tour throughout the 2012 season.
“Maybank has been committed to promoting golfing excellence in the country ever since we took on the title sponsorship of the MMO in 2006,” said Maybank chairman Tan Sri Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor.
“We have been expanding our involvement progressively and took on the PGM Tour sponsorship to help develop grass-root talent in the country as we believe this opportunity will pave the way for local professionals to gain as much needed experience to compete on a bigger platform,” he concluded.
PGM Tour chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid took the opportunity to express the players’ gratitude for the opportunity extended to them.
“It is heart-warming to have Maybank reward local PGM Tour professionals with a slot in the Maybank Malaysian Open, our countries top international golf tournament. No greater honour can be bestowed on a Malaysian than to represent their country in an international meet and I sincerely hope that whoever secures this honour will do us proud.
“Maybank is to be congratulated and thanked for its generosity and contributions towards developing Malaysia’s golfing talent and extending to them an opportunity of a lifetime.
“The PGM Tour is growing at a rapid rate and I’m delighted with the progress we have made in every aspect of developing well-rounded professionals. I hope that the transparency that the Tour demonstrates will be an impetus for corporate Malaysia to step up and get involved, whether it’s getting behind a golfer and offering sponsorship or taking on the title sponsorship on an event to offer support across the board to our players. We welcome you with open arms and the good that you can bring to the sport.”