Kuala Lumpur: New dad Kemarol Baharin Kemarol Huda realised his dream of teeing off at the Maybank Malaysian Open after earning his start at the two-day National Qualifier which concluded on Wednesday.
Kemarol, who welcomed the arrival of his first son in late January, carded a round of two-over 74 at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club to finish two strokes behind winner M. Sasidaran, who shot matching 71s to top the 49-player field with a two-under 142.
Taking a share of third were the pair of Mohd Hanafiah Jamil and P. Gunasegaran, who locked up the final two invites to the US$2.75 million national Open, with a two-over 146 overall.
The quartet will complete the 15-strong domestic professional line-up at the European and Asian Tours co-sanctioned tournament which includes Maybank ambassadors Danny Chia and Shaaban Hussin as well as Nicholas Fung, Sukree Othman, R. Nachimuthu, Airil Rizman Zahari and Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Maybank Tour Players’ Championship winner Akhmal Tarmizee Nazari.
Event promoter Global One have nominated veterans Md Rashid Ismail and S. Murthy as well as former nationals S. Sivachandhran, Mohd Azman Basharuddin and Kenneth De Silva as their invitees.
Qualifier winner Sasidaran will tee-off at the national Open for the eighth time but admitted that he was happy to make the final field after struggling with indifferent form for much of the 2012 season.
“I knew that based on my disappointing performance last year that I had to earn my place at the tournament through the qualifier. I braced myself by playing a couple of times at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club just to get the feel and it paid dividends because I was more prepared and was able to play two very good rounds of golf this week,” said Sasidaran, who finished tied-59th in 2010 – his best-ever performance on the Malaysian Open stage.
Kemarol on the other hand, was rejoicing after earning his maiden start at the championship, which will be played from March 21-24.
“I’m relieved that I played well enough to be in the top four because I was really struggling with my game this week. Having a newborn at home is really tiring because you’re never getting enough sleep but that is not an excuse because I was not executing my irons that well and missed a couple of putts out there.
“It is no doubt a big moment for me because you always dream of playing your national Open but I will have to rethink my strategy ahead of the tournament,” shared Kemarol.
