Eight-time Kota Permai club champion Jimmy Chia is understandably nervous about taking on the region’s leading professionals in this week’s Bandar Malaysia Open, but the 51-year-old hopes that home ground advantage will help him make the cut.
“Of course I’m very excited at playing in the Bandar Malaysia Open but, at the same time, I’m feeling very nervous and jittery,” said Chia who won the men’s gross title at the club championship in 2019, 2017, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2005, 2004 and 2003.
“My target is to make the cut, since this is an Asian Tour level and Japan Tour level event. Making the cut is my aim, honestly,” he added.
Chia has played and made the cut in a professional event before, in the 2010 Mercedes-Benz Masters Malaysia, also held at Kota Permai. He noted that the key to scoring low on the highly-rated Kota Permai course is to putt well on the fast and tricky greens.
“For the pros, if they can putt well, they can score as the course isn’t that long. For me, put it on the fairway, get it on the green, make the putt. That’s it,” he stressed.
Playing on a tournament invitation ticket, Chia tees off from Hole 1 at 9.40am in tomorrow’s first round grouped with professionals Will Heffernan of Australia and fellow-Malaysian Fadzlan Faruk.
A record 47 Malaysian players made up of 37 professionals and 10 amateurs will tee off in the Bandar Malaysia Open, which is sanctioned by the Asian Tour in partnership with the Japan Golf Tour. The US$1 million event has a 156-strong field with players from 23 countries, including over 50 Asian Tour winners.
No local player has ever won the Malaysian Open, which is the flagship event of the Malaysian Golf Association and returns this year after a four-year lapse. Inaugurated in 1962, the tournament boasts an illustrious list of past winners including England’s Lee Westwood, South African Louis Oosthuizen, India’s Anirban Lahiri and Arjun Atwal, Thai stars Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, as well as Korea’s Noh Seung-yul.
