Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Masters will make a long awaited return, as the penultimate leg of the burgeoning ASEAN PGA Tour.
The tournament, which was last played in 1999 at Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club (pix) will make a sentimental return to the same venue from November 3 to 6, boasting a prize purse of US$60,000.
Great names such as Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant have claimed the title in the past and with a strong field playing next month, including some of South East Asia’s rising stars, another great champion’s name could be on the run to be inscribed onto the trophy.
At press time, the line-up includes Palembang MUSI champion Wisut Artjanawat as well as local favourite Nicholas Fung, who has won twice in island of Borneo this year on the domestic Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Tour.
With the top seven players from the Tour’s Order of Merit after the Masters qualifying for the following week’s US$6 million Barclays Singapore Open, it promises to be a thrilling week of golf in the Land below the Wind.
Sabah Tourism Board has paved the way for the tournament’s revival with handsome sponsorship and is seeing the event as an ideal way to promote Kota Kinabalu and Sabah as a tourist destination.
“Sabah Tourism Board are thrilled to be supporting the Sabah Masters for the next three years. The tournament has in the past, played an important role in our tourism industry and will now continue to do so in the future. Sabah has some fine golf courses and of course some of the country’s top golfers and it was therefore a unanimous decision to see the tournament played once again,” said Datuk Masidi Manjun, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah.
The last winner of the event was American Robert Huxtable, who triumphed in 1999 when Sutera Harbour received rave reviews from players and golf fans alike.
Designed by leading golf course designer Graham Marsh, Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club boasts 27 holes for day and night golfing and has garnered various awards of distinction.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for Sutera Harbour to showcase the many treats that it has to offer from its wonderful golf course to its marina and luxurious hotels,” said Brian E. Werner, general manager of Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club.
“The ASEAN PGA Tour has been fortunate to welcome on board some new tournaments since we were inaugurated in 2007 and so it is also extremely rewarding to be able bring back a tournament that has not been played in over a decade. The Sabah Masters was a hugely popular tournament thanks to the delights of Kota Kinabalu and it is with eager anticipation that we await its return,” said Ramlan Haron, executive director of the ASEAN PGA.
The ClubHouse is the exclusive media partner for the Sabah Masters 2011.
