Current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader Wade Ormsby of Australia will start as one of the favourites in this week’s Bandar Malaysia Open at Kota Permai Golf & Country Club.
The US$1 million event features a diverse international field of 156 players from over 20 countries, which includes more than 50 Asian Tour winners and five Order of Merit winners.
The 39-year-old Ormsby claimed his third Asian Tour title at the 2020 season-opener in Hong Kong last month and finished T7 in last week’s New Zealand Open. In six previous appearances at the Malaysian Open, his best finish was tied-11th in the last edition in 2015.
The other highly-rated players in the field include Korean teen sensation Joohyung Kim, who finished fourth in New Zealand after leading for the first three rounds, John Catlin of the United States, Thailand’s Gunn Charoenkul and India’s Rashid Khan.
Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino, currently in 116th place on the Official World Golf Ranking, will make his debut appearance in the event as the highest-ranked player in the field.
Ben Leong, the only Malaysian to win an Asian Tour title on home soil with his lone victory coming in 2008, will spearhead the local charge which consists of 36 professionals and 11 amateurs (including four juniors). They will all be vying to become the first player to win their national open, which was inaugurated in 1962.
Veterans S. Murthy, Rashid Ismail and Danny Chia, the first Malaysian winner on the Asian Tour and the first to play all four rounds at The Open, will also be part of the home challenge.
Sanctioned by the Asian Tour in partnership with the Japan Golf Tour, the flagship event of the Malaysian Golf Association is making a return to the golfing calendar after a four-year hiatus.
