KUALA LUMPUR: Consolidation is the name of the game as the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Tour unveiled a trimmer 2016 schedule on Monday.
The sixth season of the flourishing domestic circuit will feature a 26-event roster – down by seven events from 2015 – offering a total purse of RM5.225mil, with 12 events co-sanctioned alongside the Asian Development Tour (ADT).
Ten of the ADT events will be played in the first half of the season – to give Malaysian professionals ample opportunity to garner as many Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points as possible in their pursuit for qualification to the Rio Olympics in August.
2016 Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Tour Schedule
Speaking during the unveiling of the calendar at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club yesterday, PGM chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid noted that the ultimate aim of the 2016 schedule was to get two Malaysians into the Olympics.
“Presently, Danny Chia is the only Malaysian inside the top-60 of the men’s Olympic Rankings. We are still aiming to get two of our golfers in. There is still time to achieve this, but we don’t have much of it, as the cut-off date is June.
“To this end we will use the events co-sanctioned with the ADT to try to meet the target. These ADT tournaments carry world ranking points and this helps our players in the standings – provided they do well in competition,” noted Ahmad Sarji.
He also added that season-opening Tournament of Champions will be scrapped after two season while the Tour will also end its relationship with the ASEAN PGA Tour, seeing three events being dropped from the schedule.
However, two new events – the Malaysia-Indonesia Invitational Championship as well as the Seniors Championship will debut in November at the PGM Tour’s yet-to-be-opened flagship SeriEmas Golf Club in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
The PGM I&P Championship at Kinrara Golf Club will get things underway from January 20 – 23 at Kinrara Golf Club while the RM275,000 PGM Maybank Players Championship at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club from December 7-12 will bring the curtain down on the 2016 season.
Full excerpts of the Q&A with PGM Tour chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid will be published in The ClubHouse 2015 Season Review Issue (Issue 53).
