Asian tour golf stars return to Malaysia CIMB Classic

PETALING JAYA: The talented trio of Kevin Na, Charlie Wi and Noh Seung-yul are taking trips down memory lane when they compete in the US$6.1mil CIMB Classic at the Mines Resort and Golf Club during 25-28 October, 2012
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Malaysia has been a happy hunting ground for the trio, who have all won tournaments here when they featured on the Asian Tour previously before moving on to the PGA Tour.

The 40-year-old Wi claimed the first of his seven Asian Tour titles at the 1997 Kuala Lumpur Open before establishing himself as one of Asia’s top golfers with six more victories, including the 2006 Malaysian Open.

Na, a Korean-American, enjoyed his career breakthrough by winning his maiden professional title at the 2002 Volvo Masters of Asia in Malaysia while the gifted Seung-yul has since emerged as one of the Asian Tour’s greatest talents in recent times.

Seung-yul has been touted as a potential top-10 player in the world and is currently training under swing guru Sean Foley, who is also the coach of 14-time Major champion Tiger Woods.

Former world No. 1 Woods will headline the CIMB Classic along with title holder Bo Van Pelt and inaugural champion Ben Crane.

The slender Seung-yul produced an impressive rookie season on the PGA Tour this year, notching three top-10s and 13 top-25s. He has also made 17 consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour dating back to April.

Seung-yul, who started hitting golf balls on the beach near his home when he was seven, said competing on the Asian Tour laid the foundation for his rapid rise in the game.

Sanctioned by the PGA Tour, Asian Tour and Professional Golf Association of Malaysia, the CIMB Classic will see a top class field of 48 players competing for the US$1.3mil winning purse.

The tournament will feature 30 players from the PGA Tour and the top 10 available players from the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. Eight sponsors’ exemptions will make up the rest of the field, with two places reserved for Malaysian professionals. - The Star

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Malaysia is set to grab the golfing headlines in October – thanks to the rebranding of the CIMB Classic.

The future of the CIMB Classic looks as good as it could ever be.

DATUK Seri Nazir Razak spoke for just 10 minutes and the function was over in less than 30 minutes, not withstanding this, the quick-do was probably the most significant event for Malaysia, or even the region, in terms of golf, in the past few decades.

In the least, not since the joint-sanctioning of the Malaysian Open by the European and Asian Tours have we witnessed such an important change to the local golf landscape.

No, we’re not talking only about Tiger Woods coming in October for the CIMB Classic, but rather that in 2013 the tournament will become a full-fledged US PGA Tour event, whose winnings will count towards the money list and also carry all-important FedEx Cup points.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told the function that it has always been his dream to one day see a full-fledged PGA Tour event staged in Malaysia and added that he was grateful to CIMB for making it possible.

The CIMB Classic, as it is now known, will definitely consolidate Malaysia’s standing in global golf and bring the country’s courses into greater focus for the millions of golf tourists around the world.

The prize money in 2013 will be increased to US$7mil (RM21.8mil) and make the CIMB Classic among the richest in the world. At the moment, the tournament with the biggest prize purse in the world is the Players Championship with US$9.5mil.

This is followed by the two WGC (World Golf Championship) events – the Cadillac and the Bridgestone – at US$8.5mil apiece. The four majors (the Masters, US Open, the Open and PGA Championship) and the three FedEx Cup play-off events (The Barclays, Deutche Bank, BMW and Tour Championship) pay out US$8mil each.

There are no PGA Tour events that have prize money of more than US$7mil. Even the WGC-HSBC at Guangzhou’s Mission Hills has an equivalent purse of US$7mil.

The CIMB Classic, a no-cut event, will have 60 PGA Tour players taking part from next year.

By design, the CIMB will precede the WGC-HSBC, event thus offering two hefty paydays for the PGA professionals at the start of the new season format of the US Tour.

Todd Rhinehart, the PGA Tour’s executive director of the CIMB Classic, revealed that the new format would see the golf season start in the fall from next year.

Rhinehart has been brought in specially to run the CIMB Classic – his last job was to organise the season-ending Tour Championship – which decides the FedEx Cup winner.

Another big change to this tournament, besides the name change (it was previously the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic) is that the bank is now dealing with the PGA Tour directly on the event.

As for Tiger’s appearance from Oct 24, it could not have come at a better time.

His last appearance in Malaysia was also at the Mines Resort & Golf Club for the 1999 World Cup.
His return visit and the rebranding of the CIMB Classic comes as we Malaysians have gotten used to the top European names coming to our shores. This year’s event should stir quite a bit of interest.

Between now and October, look out for the various ways and contests to win tickets to watch Tiger and the other PGA Tour players at the Mines.

A point to note, Nazir in his closing remarks jokingly told the audience including, the Prime Minister that he hoped there would not be “any major sporting or political event” during the Oct 24-28 week.

In his reply, Najib said he was looking forward to playing with Tiger in the Pro-Am – provided there was no important events on.

In 1999, when Tiger partnered Mark O’Meara to win the World Cup – it was right in the middle of the campaign period of the GE10.

Let’s hope this time we can watch the CIMB Classic without distraction.

Caddy Master By WONG SAI WAN

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