Jakarta [INDONESIA]: Malaysian professionals will take on their Indonesian counterparts in a Ryder Cup-styled tournament as part of a revamp of the Indonesian Golf Tour (IGT)-Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Championship.
The second playing of the IDR600,000,000 (appox RM192,265) tournament will take place at the Riverside Golf Club in Bogor, Indonesia from September 5-7.
Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday, IGT chairman Jimmy Masrin explained that the change in the format was to make the tournament more exciting and dynamic for spectators and players alike.
“The format of strokeplay is not as exciting as the format followed by the Ryder Cup, when only two opponents compete against one another. Matchplay brings more excitement to each match and also brings the best in team spirit,” he said.
Malaysia and Indonesia will send 12 players to make up their respective teams. The top 12 available players on the PGM Tour Order of Merit will make up the Malaysian selection while the hosts will select eight from the IGT money list with four additional captain’s picks.
Multiple PGM Tour winner and 2011 Order of Merit champion Nachimuthu Ramasamy will skipper the Malaysian selection while Former Indonesian national Jubilant “Teddy” Arda will captain the host team.
PGM TOUR SELECTION
Ben Leong (3)
Khor Kheng Hwai (5)
R. Nachimuthu (6)
Shahriffudin Ariffin (7)
Sukree Othman (8)
Irfan Yusoff (12)
Muhd Wafiyuddin Abdul Manaf (13)
Kemarol Baharin (14)
Keneth Tobuse (16)
Kim Leun Kwang (17)
Amir Nazrin Jailani (18)
Airil Rizman Zahari (19)
*(x) denoted PGM Tour ranking
The teams will contest four foursome matches in the morning and four fourball matches in the afternoon on the first two days before playing 12 singles matches in the final round.
A total of 28 points will be on offer with the first team to reach 14½ points winning the Championship. However, if both teams are level on 14 points, the Malaysian selection will retain the trophy, having emerged victorius in 2016.
Global insurance giant Zurich is the supporting sponsor for the championship.
