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Malaysian amateurs to face Asia's finest

Malaysian national amateur golfers S. Sivachandran, Edmund Au and Mohamed Ilyia Jamil will have the opportunity to rub shoulders with many of Asia's best players at this week's inaugural Pulai Springs Malaysian Masters.

The talented trio were extended invitations by the Asian Tour to feature in the US$300,000 event which makes its debut at Pulai Springs Resort in Johor.

Amongst the Asian stars teeing up on Thursday include reigning Asian Tour number one Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand, India's Jyoti Randhawa, who was the top-ranked player in 2002, and last week's Brunei Open champion Wang Ter-chang of Chinese Taipei.

Sivachandran, Au and Ilyia are preparing for the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar later this year and Asian Tour Chief Executive Louis Martin believes the experience of competing against the professionals will benefit them.

“We are pleased to include the three Malaysian national amateur players into the elite field in Pulai Springs this week. They will have the opportunity to play with many of the Asian Tour’s best players and I believe the experience will benefit their games and careers. This is also part of the Tour’s efforts in assisting in the development of the amateur game," said Martin.

Sivachandran, the Malaysian amateur number one, and Ilyia will bring some good form into this week's Pulai Springs Malaysian Masters as they finished as the top-two players respectively in the KL Amateur Open last week.

The 27-year-old Sivachandran is regarded as the player with the best opportunity of playing in all four rounds this week. He has been the cornerstone of the Malaysian team that won two Putra Cup titles, including in Yangon last December.

This season, he has claimed four amateur victories on the local circuit and he will certainly not feel out of place as he has played in Asian Tour events previously. His last tournament was at the Maybank Malaysian Open where he fired a first round 67 but was subsequently disqualified after missing his tee time for round two after a mix-up due to the spill-over of play to Friday because of inclement weather.

"I feel like knocking my head but I will definitely learn from this as it is a big, big lesson for me," said Sivachandran then. "This is the first time something like this has happened to me. We normally have scoring problems and I always double check the scores to make sure everything is fine but never a timing problem. I will take this as a lesson."

The Malaysian trio will also get a first-hand look at the progress made by several former amateur stalwarts this week. India's Shiv Kapur, winner of the Asian Games gold medal in 2002, will compete in Pulai Springs, having won the Volvo Masters of Asia last December. The 24-year-old Indian has also secured his European Tour card for 2007.

Thailand's Chinarat Phadungsil, still only 17, is also in the field in Pulai Springs Resort. A former world junior amateur champion, Chinarat has since won two Asian Tour titles, including the Crowne Plaza Open in China a fortnight ago.

The other young guns who will shoot for glory in Malaysia include Thailand's Prom Meesawat, winner of the SK Telecom Open in Korea this year, and Korea's Park Jun-won, runner-up of the Philippine Open.

August 28, 2006