Maybank Championship moves to Saujana

The Palm Course at Saujana Golf & Country Club

KUALA LUMPUR: After a eight-year hiatus, the Palm Course at Saujana Golf & Country Club will welcome the world’s leading golfers, including a contingent of ASEAN’s best professionals, when it plays host to the second edition of the Maybank Championship Malaysia from February 9-12, 2017.

“I am happy to announce that next year’s Maybank Championship Malaysia, will again be in collaboration with the Asian Tour, European Tour, and promoted by our long-time partner GlobalOne. It will be held at the re-designed Saujana Golf and Country Club.

“The world’s best ASEAN golfing talents that competed in the recent Rio Olympics would have inspired many more ASEAN players to rise in the world of professional competitive golf, so our focus is to give them and many more ASEAN golfers playing opportunities at the 2017 Maybank Championship Malaysia,” said Maybank chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Megat Zaharuddin.

“We are delighted to return as a sanctioning partner of the Maybank Championship Malaysia, and expect the 2017 tournament to be as successful as the inaugural edition at the Royal Selangor Golf Club,” he added.

The highly-acclaimed Palm Course at Saujana – an European Tour destination – went through an extensive upgrade in recent years, with the major difference being the replacement of the original holes 6 and 7 with the new holes 8 and 9.

The renovation focused on hauling back a sizable number of tee positions to bring the water hazards back into play and repositioning the sand traps to compensate for advances in equipment technology.

More importantly, a swap to TifEagle grass on the putting surfaces was aimed at returning the sting to the infamous tract nicknamed The Cobra, which should provide a stern challenge to the field of 156 golfers from the Asian and European Tours, who will compete for the lucrative US$3 million prize purse.