Kota Kinabalu: Local sensation Nicholas Fung will bank on local knowledge and a partisan home crowd this week as the ASEAN PGA Tour arrives at the Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club for the Sabah Masters.
The US$60,000 tournament tees off tomorrow and is making a return to the golf calendar for the first time since 1999 and Fung starts as one of the hot favourites to claim the title.
The sophomore professional has quickly emerged as one of Malaysia’s top golfers and headlines a strong field that includes his compatriots Airl Rizman Zahari, S. Sivachandran, Rashid Ismail, and Khor Kheng Hwai.
Thailand’s Wisut Artjanawat, winner of the Palembang Musi Championship on the ASEAN PGA Tour last month, and Indonesia’s top golfer Rory Hie are also competing along with Filipinos Gerald Rosales and Jay Bayron.
With the top seven players from the Tour’s Order of Merit after Sabah qualifying for next week’s US$6 million Barclays Singapore Open it promises to be a thrilling week of golf.
A two-time winner on the domestic Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) where he clinched a Borneo double, Fung has been in fine form coming into the tournament including a second place finish in the Palembang event.
“I have been working really hard on my game all year and that has shown in my results. It is not easy to win in front of your local fans but I did that earlier in the year and I will use that experience this week,” said Fung.
He has triumphed once before on the ASEAN PGA Tour in last year’s Mercedes-Benz Masters Vietnam, which was a Matchplay event. “That was my first win as a professional and was a huge moment. It gave me so much confidence early on in my career and allowed me to progress so much this year,” added Fung, who is using the tournament as warm-up ahead of his jaunt Down Under for next week’s Emirates Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship.
Great names such as Thailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant have claimed the Sabah Masters in the past and Fung will be hoping his name will be inscribed on the trophy come Sunday.
