Subang: The imposing Palm Course at Saujana Golf & Country Club bared its fangs as players struggled to break par during the first round of the 26th MPI-Saujana Amateur Championship on Tuesday.
It did not however stop a strong contest from ensuing for the opening round honours with Australian Christoper Robert Brown, Sean Yu Sung-I of Chinese Taipei as well as Singaporean duo Nicklaus Chiam and Abdul Hadi settling for a share of the lead with even-par 72s.
Two strokes off the lead on matching 74s was another competitor from across the Causeway Marc Ong and Aussie Taylor Macdonald, who finished third at last week’s Malaysian Amateur Open.
With Gavin Kyle Green unable to return and defend his title, fellow national Muhd Afif Mohd Razif was the leading Malaysian with a four-under 76. Reigning national junior champion Low Khai Jei, who came into the tournament as the reigning Saujana GCC club champion, got his campaign off to a poor start with a 80.
Despite taking a liking to Saujana’s fast greens, Chiam was hoping to improve on his putting. “The greens were good and fast, just the way I like it and I really felt comfortable,” said 18-year-old, who recorded birdies at fifth, seventh and 16th.
“I played 15 holes in regulations and did not miss my short putts but three-putted two of the longer ones, resulting in bogeys. I definitely need to look on improving that,” he added.
Despite struggling with the pace of the greens early on, Taiwanese Yu bounced back from bogeys at the 3rd and 4th with gains on the fifth, seventh, ninth and 11th. “I took a while to settle in as the greens were very fast in comparison to Royal Pahang [Golf Club] where the national amateur open was played a few days ago,” said Yu.
“My ironplay was really good today but I’m a little disappointed with myself on the par-five 13th, which I bogeyed. The hole should have been very easy but I messed it up,” he shared.
Leading first round scores (Malaysian unless stated)
72 – Christopher Brown (AUS), Abdul Hadi (SIN), Nicklaus Chiam (SIN), Sean Yu (TPE)
74 – Marc Ong (SIN), Taylor MacDonald (AUS)
76 – Edgar Oh (SIN), James Bates (AUS), Md Afif Md Razif
77 – Bramantio Adi (INA), Jerome Ng (SIN), Yap Chin Tong
78 – Andrew Hans (USA), Chieh Po-Lee (TPE), Faiz K Ahmad, Melvin Chew (SIN), Jeffrey Wang (HKG), Kuan-Heng Lin (TPE)
79 – Syukrizal (INA), Ervin Chang, Lion Goh (SIN)
80 – Johnson Poh (SIN), Thomas Tan (SIN), Low Khai Jei, Hao Yang (TPE), Simon Cheongi
81 – Choi Hou Kuan (MAC), Md Diab Alnoaimi (BHN), Azharudin Akasah Md, Gregory Eu
