Early February date for Maybank Championship

Gavin Kyle Green will headline the region's challenge at the 2018 Maybank Championship© Stanley Chou|Getty

KUALA LUMPUR: The  third edition of the Maybank Championship will return to Saujana Golf and Country Club from February 1 to 4, 2018.

The highly anticipated event will be co-sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours with a total of 156 players vying for honours in the US$3 million event.

The Palm Course at Saujana, nicknamed The Cobra, will be further enhanced and lengthened to deliver more sting at the Maybank Championship while reinforcing its stature as one of the most difficult golf courses in the world.

“Maybank has been a key driving force behind the rise of businesses and economies across ASEAN and making a positive impact in the communities that we are in. We have supported the development of both infrastructure and people in business, government, communities and sports in any way that we can.

“Golf is one area we have been involved in for over a decade and the Maybank Championship is a distillation of all that into a single platform where the best in sports, business and talent as well as a superior experience comes together in Malaysia, from across the world including ASEAN,” said Maybank Group president and chief executive Datuk Abdul Farid Alias.

The Maybank Championship was created with the vision of building a platform for the leading ASEAN players to play against the best golfers from the Asian Tour and European Tour and the 2018 edition will once again extend invites to the region’s top professionals.

The top ten Malaysian golfers from the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Tour will also get a chance to compete with some of golf’s leading lights.

“The Championship is a competitive platform that also seeks to uplift and unite the ASEAN region; through the power of competition, fair play and camaraderie. Like in 2017, we will offer a total of five slots to promising young players from the ASEAN region as well as a strong line-up of Malaysian professionals to participate in our Championship where they will have the chance to pit their skills against some of the world’s best golfers,” said Farid.