Another busy season lies in wait
PGM Tour lines up 20 events for the men and 10 for the women in 2019 campaign
AFTER an eventful year in which some real top quality golf was played, the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) are looking forward to the 2019 season.
The domestic Tour launched their new schedule at an event in Kuala Lumpur where representatives from their sponsors, golf clubs and golf club managers, players and other guests heard that 20 tournaments have been lined up in the new campaign.
The 2019 season will start with the customary Perlis Closed Championship at Putra Golf Club from Jan 16 to 19 and end with the Tour’s richest event – the RM275,000 GlobeOne Players Championship at Kota Seriemas Golf & Country Club in Nilai, Negri Sembilan from Dec 4 to 7. Nine Asian Development Tour (ADT) events form the biggest of the components that make up the Tour. These tournaments are worth RM2.025mil of the RM3.895mil total.
There are six PGM Closed Championships worth RM1.7mil and ladies’ events worth RM350,000.
The four Qualifying School tournaments carry prize money of RM90,000 while the Seniors Championship is worth RM185,000.
The IGT-PGM Cup tournament between Indonesia and Malaysia has been scheduled for Aug 6 to 8 at an Indonesian golf club yet to be determined.
This is an annual Ryder Cupstyle event pitting the best of the Indonesian Golf Tour against the PGM Tour.
PGM Tour chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said they were pleased with how the 2018 season turned out and looked forward to the new campaign.
Thanking their sponsors and stakeholders, Sarji said the circuit was “an ideal platform for PGM Tour card holders to earn official world ranking points and qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games”.
The nine tournaments co-sanctioned with the ADT carry world ranking points. Since the inauguration of the PGM-ADT tournaments, more than 15 Malaysian players have earned official world ranking points.
He added that the PGM Tour had recommended 10 players for the final stage of the 2019 Asian Tour Qualifying School. They are Shariffudin Ariffin, Sukree Othman, Amir Nazrin, Kim Leung Kwan, R. Nachimuthu, Wilson Choo, Kenneth De Silva, Kemarol Bahrin, S. Siva Chandhran and M. Wafiyuddin.
Sarji said that through an agreement between PGM and the Asian Tour, six spots will be reserved for Malaysia – via country exemptions. The players are Shariffudin, Sukree, Nazrin, Leung Kwan, Nachimuthu and Choo.
Turning to sponsorship, Sarji said while they were grateful for the support they received, they also welcomed further input from the corporate sector “at any time during the year” to help fund events and also bolster the development of professional golf in Malaysia.
The PGM Tour, registered in August 2010, has set out as its primary objective the desire to promote the sport of golf and to contribute towards its enjoyment and growth.