Malaysia’s Arie Irawan starts his PGA Tour Series-China campaign tomorrow when he tees off in the RMB1.5 million Chengdu Championship at Luxehills International Country Club.
Arie noted that he will juggle his schedule between the China circuit, the Asian Tour and the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Tour as he continues his career resurgence after recovering from a moped accident in 2016.
“I’ll probably focus more on China. I’ll have to play the minimum number of PGM Tour events and if I can get into some Asian Tour events, that would be great to fill up the schedule,” said Arie, who finished T19 in the PGA Tour Series-China’s second international qualifying school last month to earn conditional status.
“I should be able to get into most of the PGA Tour Series-China events – but I’ll definitely miss one because of my wedding!” added the strapping 27-year-old, who will be getting hitched to girlfriend Marina on May 11.
Arie’s target is to finish in the Top 5 of the Order of Merit and earn a ticket to the Web.com Tour. “The worst case scenario is to get in the top 10 so I can get into the final stage of the Web.com qualifying school,” he said.
In 2015, Arie’s career was on the upswing when he won two events on the Asian Development Tour and also held a full Asian Tour card. However, the Malaysian’s rise was curtailed by the moped accident in March 2016 which left him with metal plates in his shoulder. After a four-month break, he returned to action in August that year and and got back to winning ways in last December’s Maybank Players Championship.
The 2018 PGA Tour Series-China has a 14-tournament schedule with each event offering RMB 1.5 million in prizemoney. The top five players on the final Order of Merit will earn Web.com Tour cards for the 2019 season.
