Leong wins inaugural Malaysia-Indonesia invitational

Ben Leong ©Arep Kulal|PGM Tour

KUALA LUMPUR: Ben Leong’s sizzling form continued to deliver the goods as the Sabahan held on for a wire-to-wire victory at the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) – Indonesia Golf Tour (IGT) Championship on Saturday.

This triumph marked the third time Leong has won this season and was also a back-to-back success following his win at the Orna Closed Championship a fortnight ago.

The 30-year-old carded a third and final day even-par 72 to finish with a 10-under 206 overall at the newly-opened Kota Seri Emas Golf & Country Club.

That proved enough for a single-shot victory over Indonesia’s Daniel J. Maserin of Indonesia and seasoned local campaigner Danny Chia. The former carded a two-under 70 while Chia managed a 71.

The inaugural RM250,000 tournament also featured a team event, which saw hosts Malaysia garner a 26-under-par aggregate to secure an overwhelming victory over their Indonesian counterparts, who returned a 66-over.

Each team had 25 players respectively in the field with the 20 best scores daily being taken into account for the team standings.

Pleased with his win Leong said: “It’s nice to have won again and back-to-back at that. But it was not especially easy out there today.

“I struggled over the first nine and was in fact three-over after the first six holes. But I did not let this get me down and instead told myself to be patient.

“In the end it worked out alright and this is reward for keeping focused and being patient when I needed to be,” added Leong, who now has five PGM Tour titles to his belt.

Leading final results (Par-72) >
206 – Ben Leong 66-68-72
207 – Daniel J.Masrin (INA) 70-67-70, Danny Chia 68-68-71
208 – Kemarol Baharin 67-69-72
211 – George Gandranata (INA) 73-70-68, Nachimuthu Ramasamy 71-68-72
213 – Khor Kheng Hwai 73-73-67, Wilson Choo 72-73-68, Muhd Amli Mohiyadeen 74-69-70, Nicholas Fung 70-72-71
214 – Sukree Othman 73-69-72
215 – Sarmilah (INA) 70-72-73
216 – Kenneth De Silva 71-72-73