Kuala Lumpur: UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd has pledged a generous sum of RM1.77 million to help realise the Professional Golf of Malaysia’s (PGM) vision to have its members participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The leading industrial enterprise has joined forces with the flourishing domestic circuit to provide the nation’s top-ranked professional golfers with a support program geared towards securing their qualification for the Olympiad golf programme, which will make its much-awaited return in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Twelve PGM Tour members have been shortlisted for the program based on their Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) rankings, namely Arie Irawan, Danny Chia, Nicholas Fung, Airil Rizman Zahari, Mohd Rizal Amin, Shaaban Hussin, R. Nachimuthu, Khor Kheng Hwai, Ben Leong, Kemarol Baharin, Sukree Othman and Abel Tam.
The comprehensive 18-month program facilitated by MST Golf will provide the chosen professionals with full access to holistic golf coaching in key areas such as mental conditioning, emotional control, short game expertise, physiotherapy and fitness.
They will also be able to train at some of the country’s premium golf tracts including Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, Glenmarie Golf & Country Club, Templer Park Country Club, Saujana Golf & Country Club, The Mines Golf Club and Impian Golf & Country Club.
In addition to training support, the top six players will also receive tournament subsidies to help fund their exploits on the Asian Tour as well as on the secondary Asian Development Tour (ADT).
Speaking on Monday during the official unveiling of PGM-UMW Road to Olympics 2016 program, PGM chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid explained that the initiative seeks to harness the success of local professionals on the region’s development circuit.
“PGM Tour currently features 12 jointly-sanctioned ADT tournaments, which provides an opportunity for Malaysian professionals to earn valuable world rankings points in their own backyard. With the improved display of PGM Tour members in recent events, I believe that one or two of our professionals should be able to collect enough points to qualify for the 2016 Olympics,” noted Ahmad Sarji, adding that players have to maintain or improve their positions on the OWGR to remain in the program.
UMW Group chairman Tan Sri Asmat Kamaluddin said: “We are proud to be associated with the PGM-UMW Road to Olympics 2016 programme. I have seen the PGM Tour grow since its inception and personally witnessed the improvement of some of our professionals and what is most heartening is to see the emergence of young Malaysian talents. Our desire is to witness at least one Malaysian golfer fly the Jalur Gemilang in Rio de Janeiro and we believe that is a realistic goal.”
MST Golf director Paul Gibbons shared that top international short game guru Dave Pelz has been identified as one of the potential visiting coaches, adding that the program was flexible enough to accommodate the professionals’ existing coaching regimes.
Malaysia currently has two professionals inside the top-6o of the International Golf Federation’s Olympics Rankings, namely Arie Irawan (6oth – men) and Kelly Tan (44 – ladies). The two-year qualification period ends on July 11, 2016.
