KUALA LUMPUR: The venerable Royal Selangor Golf Club has been announced as the venue for the inaugural Maybank Championship Malaysia next February.
Steeped in rich golfing history, the championship course at RSGC will provide the ideal setting for the US$3 million tournament, said title sponsor Maybank in a statement on Monday.
“I am pleased that our partners have been able to reach an agreement to have the event at RSGC, one of the country’s most eminent golf clubs. With its 123 years of golfing heritage, it has been one of the proponents of heightening Malaysia’s golfing standards as it was the first club to host the Malaysian Open in 1962. We are very pleased to be contributing to RSGC’s magnanimity of creating and sustaining milestones in our country’s sporting traditions,” said Maybank chairman Tan Sri Dato Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor.
“We are confident that with the participation of top golfers from the European and Asian Tours, supplemented by selected talents from Malaysia and ASEAN countries where Maybank has operations, our event will provide the challenge for the players, excitement for the spectators and television viewers from around the world,” he added.
Having last hosted the Malaysian Open in 1992, there is a buzz of excitement as RSGC prepares for its first major professional assignment in close to 13 years.
“The Royal Selangor Golf Club is honoured to host Maybank’s premier event in 2016 as it is aligned to our heritage of hosting top championship golf events at our club. In the past decades, our courses have been graced by legends like Peter Thomson in the 60s to Severiano Ballesteros and Nick Faldo in the 90,” said RSGC captain Wong Lee Ming.
“We eagerly await the arrival of the latest stars from the European and Asian Tours to entertain our members and challenge our golf course. The challenging course with several elevated greens has recently undergone extensive renovations and provides a tropical parkland setting with perhaps distracting views of the Petronas Twin Towers, which add to the demands of accurate golf shot execution.”
