Liyana Durisic
Malaysia’s Liyana Durisic is relishing the opportunity to compete on home soil when the Maybank Championship tees off at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club (KLGCC) from 29 October to 1 November, with the Malaysian looking to make the most of her third consecutive appearance at the LPGA Tour event.
Durisic is joined by four Thai golfers – Marisa Tojai, Achiraya Sriwong, Sarisa Pojanalai and Pimnipa Panthong – who earned their places through the ASEAN Qualifier and are eager to test themselves against some of the world’s best players.
For Durisic, a KLGCC ambassador, familiarity with the West Course is an advantage, but she believes her mental approach will be crucial as she prepares for another week of high-level competition.
“You would think that I have learned everything about the course, which I do think I know all the ins and outs of the course. I think it’s more so mental game and just go out there and enjoy it, because I play my best when I’m not all in my head,” she said.
The Malaysian will have added support this week, with her family and close friends expected to be there, while her brother, Danial, returns as her caddie.
Durisic believes their presence will help her stay relaxed and focused rather than become distracted by expectations.
“So if I just go out there, enjoy my family and friends being out here, enjoy my brother being on the bag, I think that will be just a massive boost of confidence to enjoy it instead of being all up my head and worrying about the outcome,” she said.
She has also been working on improving her mental game, particularly learning to move on from negative thoughts instead of allowing them to affect her performance.
“I would say in terms of my mental game it has definitely improved. I would hope that we have built a framework to get me out of my head, which is great. I’m just hoping that I am able to really instil it in myself, because obviously mental game is always very tricky.
“Some days you feel really good and some days you don’t deal your best. It’s more allowing the thoughts to pass instead of like really dwelling on it. That’s what I’m working on this week, to just be focusing and be present out there and enjoy it and soaking in the energy.”
Having competed in the championship over the past two years, Durisic is also looking forward to playing alongside more LPGA Tour professionals and learning from their approach to the game.
“I think for last year I played with a lot more LPGA professionals than I did the first year, which is very exciting. I think this year I’m also looking forward to playing with more LPGA professionals compared to last year so that I could just see how their game fares up against mine and then learn a lot from them, watch how they do it, and also just enjoy myself on top of that,” she said.
Among the four Thai qualifiers, Tojai, Pojanalai and Panthong will make their LPGA Tour debuts, while Sriwong returns after competing in last year’s championship as an amateur.
Panthong said competing in a world-class event would be a valuable learning experience.
“This is going to be my first LPGA event. Obviously, I’m very excited, and I think this will be a very great learning experience for me as well,” she said.
Pojanalai, who is balancing golf with her studies at Michigan State University, is also looking forward to testing herself against established professionals.
“So I’m looking forward to be playing with good professional golfers and to be back in the course. It’s a challenging one, a challenging course, and, yeah, just try to do my best,” she said.
Tojai hopes to make the most of the experience and use it to support her development as a golfer.
“So basically, my goal this year is to enjoy and play my best, and hopefully, I will like the experience I get; this will help me grow in the future,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sriwong aims to improve on her performance from last year.
“I hope to play better than last year,” she said.
