Henrik won’t get shirty over Poom
SUBANG: Baby-faced Thai golfer Poom Saksansin is all fired up to sizzle in the Maybank Championship at the Saujana Golf and Country Club this week after receiving a wonderful gift from his idol Henrik Stenson.
The 24-year-old looked like a star-struck kid when he finally got to take a photograph with the world No. 12 from Sweden yesterday.
Poom, a two-time Asian Tour winner, was apparently too shy to approach the Swede when Team Asia and Team Europe clashed at the EurAsia Cup two weeks ago.
Poom then teamed up superbly with South Korea’s Kang Sung-hoon to whip Stenson and Frenchman Alexander Levy 5&4 in the opening fourball sessions.
What Poom didn’t know was his captain Arjun Atwal eventually helped him to get Stenson to sign a shirt as a reward for his stunning victory over the latter.
“I was completely stunned when captain Arjun gave me the autographed shirt during the Singapore Open recently (the week after the EurAsia Cup).
“Captain knew I yearned for Henrik’s autograph because I told him about it before the match. But he said ‘not unless you beat him!’ I really didn’t expect captain would get it for me.
“I like him a lot but didn’t know how to approach Henrik because he’s very cool and doesn’t smile a lot.
“I’m really happy now that I got my idol’s autograph. Not only that, he also wrote on the shirt ‘thanks for kicking my butt’. It was awesome.”
Yesterday, Poom grabbed another chance to meet up with Stenson in this week’s tournament sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour.
He waited for Stenson to finish his press conference and boldly approached him for a photograph this time.
Stenson said: “We need to rename him assassin instead of Saksansin! Alex and I got a heavy beating there and deserved it.
“Afterwards I got one of the team shirts and signed it for him because I heard he is a bit of a fan.
“I don’t think he needs to be shy at this point. He’s a good player and they played fantastic the first round. They beat us fair and square.”
Poom is surely one of the players to look out for this week.
Besides impressing at the EurAsia Cup, he also upset England’s two-time Ryder Cup winner Paul Casey in the singles.
Poom also did well in his last two Asian Tour starts at the Singapore Open and last week’s Myanmar Open – finishing tied 12th and tied 10th respectively.
“I’m confident with my game but the Saujana course is quite tricky and I missed the cut last year. So, it’s all about playing well in the first two days and making the cut first but I think I can do better than that,” he said.