Nicholas and Ben keep their Asia Tour spots

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will continue to be represented on the Asian Tour next season after golfers Nicholas Fung and Ben Leong successfully retained their respective playing privileges in the region’s premier circuit.

The duo finished in the top 60 of the Order of Merit after the Tour ended with the Thailand Masters in Pattaya on Sunday.

Nicholas was the best-placed Malaysian in 41st spot.

The 29-year-old collected US$81,403 (RM337,300) from 16 tournaments with his biggest earning of the season coming from his tied 15th effort at the Maybank Championship in March, which netted him a cool US$40,560 (RM168,100).

It is a far cry from the US$219,439 (RM909,300) Nicholas made to finish a career-best 12th in the 2016 season.

Nicholas will now be featuring in his eighth straight season as he seeks to add a second victory to his earlier breakthrough two years ago when he won the Queen’s Cup in Thailand.

Ben, too, performed consistently enough to keep his Tour card by raking in US$62,936 (RM261,000) for 48th place.

The 33-year-old made 11 cuts out of the 15 events, including in his last 10 appearances.

His best outing was finishing sixth at the Thailand Open last month. With his playing status intact, Ben can now look forward to continuing his pursuit of a long overdue second Asian Tour triumph.

Ben has yet to taste success since he last captured the Selangor Masters in 2008.

National No. 1 Gavin Kyle Green did not play enough events to be ranked on the money list, but he will still have access to any Asian Tour event by virtue of being the 2017 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion.

Gavin, who currently plies his trade on the European Tour, is enjoying a full Asian Tour exemption status that runs until 2022.