Malaysia’s top men’s amateur Ervin Chang is upbeat about his game despite going through an uncharacteristic dip in form and a disappointing outing in the recent US Amateur Championship.
The US-based golfer failed to make it to the matchplay stage at Bandon Dunes in Oregon in what was his first appearance in the prestigious championship. Ervin received an invitation from the United States Golf Association (USGA) to take part as one of the top 225 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. There were no qualifying tournaments this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now pursuing his Masters in Sport Management at Liberty University in Virginia after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in the same field last month, Ervin noted that he is slowly regaining his form after the slump.
“I’ve been struggling with my game for quite a bit but I feel like after this event, it kind of brings me back to what kind of playing style, aggressive or conservative, what kind of player I am. So I’m in the middle of getting my game back, hopefully I can start playing a lot better than now,” he said.
Ervin carded rounds of 78 and 72 at Bandon Dunes in the 36-hole strokeplay stage and failed to finish among the top 64 who progressed to the matchplay rounds.
“This is actually my first ever US Amateur tournament as I’ve never tried to qualify for it before. Overall it was a very good week for me in terms of learning. I struggled with wind and the fact that I shot even par in Round 2 with the wind blowing was really good for me,” shared Ervin.
“I had a rough first round with a triple bogey on 10, which basically flipped things upside down for me that day. It was really hard for me to adjust my putting with the wind. I hit it pretty well overall but just couldn’t make any putts to cover up my mistakes. Round 2 was a little more solid in general. Putts were dropping towards the turn and I was giving myself more opportunities for birdies as well,” added the 22-year-old.
Late last month, Ervin was recognised for this superb collegiate record for the Liberty Flames team when he was named to the Athletic Sun (ASUN) Conference Men’s Golf All-Decade team.
“Being named to the All-Decade team is definitely a really great achievement and an amazing honour to me. Liberty University only joined ASUN for about two years and in that time I was able to perform and accomplished a lot of things in both my studies and golf,” noted Ervin.
With the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) still making plans for the fall golf season, Ervin is unsure when his next event will be. “In the mean time, I will still be training and am taking the extra year given by the NCAA because of Covid-19. After that, it will most likely be professional golf for me.
Ervin added that he misses home having been stuck in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I’ve been in the US the whole time, so I definitely miss Malaysia and want to go home to be with my family,” he lamented.
