KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Gavin Kyle Green hopes to make his maiden trip to Australia a memorable one by putting up a strong showing with compatriot Ben Leong at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf starting Thursday.
Green and Leong, both making their World Cup debut this week, believe they can work together effectively and produce the fireworks for Team Malaysia when they tee off for the prestigious event at The Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne.
They will be vying for the coveted trophy against 27 other countries, including 2016 champion Denmark made up of Thorbjørn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen, in the US$7 million event which is celebrating its 59th edition this week.
The 24-year-old Green, who kept his European Tour card for the next season after enjoying a commendable rookie year, is determined put up a performance worthy of his status as the reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion in the Melbourne showpiece.
“It’s my first World Cup appearance and also my first time in Australia. I’m very excited and looking forward to it. We played a lot of tournaments back home in Malaysia so we’re pretty familiar with each other’s games.
“We have got nothing to lose this week. We will just go out there, enjoy and do the best we can. We have an idea of what we have to do already. I will probably take on the longer holes and Ben will take the straighter ones,” noted Green.
Leong, who was picked by Green, is proud to be representing Malaysia in the prestigious event and hopes to repay the faith by putting in every effort to ensure a good week at the World Cup of Golf.
“The course is playing firm and fast. It’s looking great. My game is feeling good as well. Like what Gavin said, we just got to manage our games here. We just got to keep it on the low side. We just afford to hit it to the short sides because it’s quite impossible to get up and down,” shared the Sabahan.
“You just got to know where to miss it. We sort of have an idea on our strategy already but we’re still working on it. It depends on the weather as well.”
Malaysia’s best finish was in 1994 when M. Ramayah and the late P. Gunasegaran emerged ninth in Puerto Rico while at the 2006 World Cup in Melbourne, Danny Chia and Nicholas Fung ended up joint 22nd.
