PGM to stage 10 events to boost women’s golf next season

KUALA LUMPUR: The Professional Golf of Malaysia ( PGM) are stepping up efforts to boost the women’s game in the country.

Ten women’s events – with a RM35,000 prize purse each – will be staged in next season’s PGM Tour.

It’s a continuation to what the PGM did in the middle of this year, where the women’s category was included in the Tour for the first time since its inception in 2011.

Five tournaments – offering RM15,000 each – were staged with Ainil Johani Bakar winning three to emerge the Order of Merit champion with total earnings of RM29,000. Only six pros competed.

Currently, there are only a handful of local women pros and most of them are competing abroad.

Kelly Tan and Jean Chua are based in the United States while Ainil, Michelle Koh, Aretha Pan, Dianne Luke and Michelle Low are plying their trade in China and Taiwan.

Genevieve Ling and Nur Durriyah Damian are among the recent ones who have joined the play-for-pay ranks.

PGM chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, who launched the 2018 PGM Tour calendar at the TPC Kuala Lumpur yesterday, said: “If the response is encouraging, PGM will consider the establishment of a unit to deal specifically with women’s professional golf in Malaysia.”

Next season’s Tour sees an increase of two events to 20 with a total prize purse of RM4.4mil.

Of the 20 events, 12 are co-sanctioned with the Asian Development Tour (ADT).

There are more money up for grabs as the PGM have upped the Closed events purse by RM15,000 each to RM200,000.

The ADT events will see a RM25,000 increase to RM225,000.