Refreshed Fung looking forward to a special month

PETALING JAYA: National No. 2 golfer Nicholas Fung (pic) seems to raise his game up a notch when it comes to November.

The 27-year-old has achieved three runner-up finishes on the Asian Tour in that month – in the Indonesia Open (2013), World Classic Championship in Singapore (2015) and Manila Masters (2014).

Surely he’ll be hoping for more of the same – or even better – when he competes in the US$400,000 (RM1.7mil) Panasonic Open India in New Delhi tomorrow.

Fresh from a two-week break, Nicholas aims to add a second Asian Tour crown to his collection after winning the Queens’ Cup in Koh Samui, Thailand, in June.

The Panasonic Open is one of three tournaments Nicholas will be looking to do well in as he seeks to qualify for next January’s EurAsia Cup on merit. The other two tournaments are the US$1mil (RM4.23mil) Manila Masters (Nov 9-12) and US$2mil (RM8.46mil) Hong Kong Open (Nov 23-26).

“I took a much-needed break after competing in Macau (Open) two weeks ago and it’s time to get cracking again,” said Nicholas.

“I’ve got India this week, then Manila and Hong Kong. My goal is to finish as strongly as possible in all three tournaments as the EurAsia team selection will be made after the Hong Kong Open.

“I represented Team Asia in the last two EurAsia Cup as the captain’s pick. This time, I hope to make the team on merit.”

It won’t be easy though as Nicholas, who is ranked 25th in the Asian Tour Order of Merit with a season’s earnings of US$148,862 (RM623,000), will have to work his way up to at least the top seven on the money list to make the cut.

Only the top four Asian money leaders will gain automatic qualification into the Arjun Atwal-led 12-man Asian side, with four more to come from the world rankings (top four available) and four captain’s picks.

As it stands, current Merit leader Gavin Kyle Green, fourth-placed S.S.P Chawrasia of India, sixth-placed Jazz Wattananond and seventh-placed Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand will take up the four spots on offer from the Tour.

Nicholas trails Phachara (US$301,852; RM1.27mil) for the last spot by US$159,063 (RM673,000).

With the events in India, the Philippines and Hong Kong offering a winner’s purse of US$ 72,000 (RM305,000), US$180,000 (RM761,000) and US$333,330 (RM1.41mil), Nicholas is definitely still in the race.