Sabah Masters: Rd 1 highlights
By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional
The Tournament
The Sabah Masters is a brand-new Asian Tour event held at the Sutera Harbour Golf and Country Club in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, and will offer up prize money of US$300,000 of which US$54,000 will be going to the winner.
It is the ninth full-field event of the year and it will be a great chance for many of the non-exempt players in the field this week to go for a win and secure their Asian Tour cards for the 2020 season.
The Course
Sutera Harbour has been used by Asian Tour in the past when it was one of the two courses used for the 2008 Q-School. It is a par-71 course playing to 6,932 yards from this year’s championship tees.
Designed by Australian tour player Graham Marsh who won 70 titles on the Asian Tour, European Tour, Australasian PGA Tour, Japan Tour and PGA Tour in the ’70s and ’80s, it is a flat parkland course right on the Sabah coastline.
From player accounts the greens are quite firm, especially on the back nine, while the surrounding areas are softer. Hitting the fairways should be important this week in order to control the spin into the greens.
When Q-School was held here last time, local hero Ben Leong won his second straight Q-School in front of his local supporters and he certainly has home field advantage this week.
The Contenders
Joohyung Kim
Last week’s winner of the Panasonic Open India has been on a torrid pace all season, and the 17-year-old Kim looks very much like a future world-class player.
Having won the third of his 2019 Asian Development Tour (ADT) titles in October to earn a battlefield promotion to the Asian Tour, the young Korean wasted little time in picking up his first Asian Tour trophy.
After having come down the stretch on Sunday afternoons at both the Thailand Open, where he finished two strokes out of the playoff in tied-sixth, and the Bank BRI Indonesia Open where he finished third, he sealed the deal last week after blitzing the first 10 holes on Sunday by playing them in seven-under-par.
The way he’s playing at the moment there’s no reason to believe that Kim shouldn’t continue this great form this week in Malaysia.
Pavit Tangkamolprasert
The 2016 Macao Open winner has been playing good golf lately, having lost in a playoff at the Thailand Open two weeks ago, and a tied-14th last week in India. He also had a good result at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open where he finished tied-sixth.
On the All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT) Pavit has racked up eight top-10s in 10 outings this season, the last two of those in the weeks leading up to Thailand Open he finished tied-third and tied-second.
Currently 35th on the Order of Merit with over US$90,000 and his card for next year secured, Pavit looks primed to win his second Asian Tour title.
Rashid Khan
With four top-10s in only eight Asian Tour starts and two wins at home on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) this season, Khan has been consistently performing at a high level.
Having lost his card in 2018 after a disappointing season, the two-time Asian Tour winner is now in 24th place on the Order of Merit with over US$117,000 and have secured his status for next year’s Asian Tour season.
With a tied-second at the Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship in September and a third-place finish in Bangladesh earlier in the year as his best results, it would be no surprise to see Khan at the top of the podium this week in Kota Kinabalu.
Panuphol Pittayarat
Starting out the year with a tied-ninth at the SMBC Singapore Open it remains his only top-10 this season, but with over US$106,000 in earnings he is still inside the top-30 on the Order of Merit.
Known as a very solid ball-striker, Panuphol, or Coco as he’s usually known as on Tour, is always a threat when in form, and he played well last week in Japan where he qualified for the final stage of Japan Golf Tour’s Q-School.
Having recently switched over to an all plant-based diet recommended by close friends, the two-time Asian Tour winner says he feels stronger, lighter and more energized than ever. A good sign for this week in Sabah playing in very hot weather conditions.
Kosuke Hamamoto
One of the hottest rookies this season and a player that looks destined to win on the Asian Tour soon, Kosuke has already been close finishing second to Yikeun Chang at the Yeangder TPC in September.
Add a tied-10th at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open the week before Yeangder and it has been a very impressive start to his career for the young Thai.
With over US$93,000 in earnings Kosuke has already secured his playing rights for next season, a win in the near future could be in the cards.
Yikeun Chang
The highest ranked player on the Order of Merit in the field this week, Chang is currently in 11th place with just over US$200,000.
The Korean already has a win this year at the Yeangder TPC in September, and he also finished runner-up the week before that at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open.
After playing his last two events as part of the PGA Tour’s Asian Swing, The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges and WGC-HSBC Champions, he may have picked up some valuable experience playing against super-star fields that can be put to good use this week.
By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional
The Tournament
The Panasonic Open India was inaugurated in 2011 and is the longest running full-field Asian Tour event in India. This year marks the ninth edition of the US$400,000 tournament and Indian players have dominated the event so far, winning seven out of the last eight years.
The first edition of the tournament in 2011 also turned out to be Indian star player Anirban Lahiri’s first career Asian Tour title, and he has since gone on to collect six more wins and an Order of Merit crown in 2015.
The other Indian winners of the event are Digvijay Singh (2012), S.S.P. Chawrasia (2014), Chiragh Kumar (2015), Mukesh Kumar (2016), Shiv Kapur (2017) and Khalin Joshi (2018). The lone exception to local rule was in 2013 when Wade Ormsby of Australia took the title by a shot over Thai legend Boonchu Ruangkit.
Last year’s event was played at Delhi Golf Club, with Khalin Joshi birdieing four out of the last five holes, including the last two, to beat Siddikur Rahman by a single shot.
The Course
Designed by the legendary Jack Nicklaus, Classic Golf and Country Club will play as a par-72 and 7,114 yards from the championship tees.
The course opened for play in 1998 and though this is the first time that Panasonic Open India is played at Classic, the course has hosted four Tour events previously: the 2000 and 2001 Wills Indian Opens, the 2009 SAIL Open and the 2019 Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship in September this year when Rory Hie of Indonesia claimed his maiden Asian Tour title.
Eight-time Asian Tour winner Jyoti Randhawa of India won here in a play-off against South African Sammy Daniels in 2000, while Thai star Thongchai Jaidee claimed the 2001 edition by a single stroke over Ross Bain of Scotland.
The most notable event held at Classic was the 2009 SAIL Open, when Chapchai Nirat of Thailand recorded the lowest ever score to par after 72 holes in a major golf tournament, 32-under-par to win by 11 shots. This record still stands in the Guinness World Records today.
The Contenders
Khalin Joshi
The defending champion will be trying to reproduce the magic from last year, and with his winner’s category expiring at the end of the year he needs to have some good results in the remaining events.
Currently in 98th place on the Order of Merit with close to US$24,000, Joshi will likely need to make another US$45,000 to be assured of keeping his card for the 2020 season. A high finish this week could go a long way towards reaching that goal.
Suradit Yongcharoenchai
At number nine on the Order of Merit with just over US$237,000, Suradit is the highest ranked player in the field this week.
The winner of the Mercuries Taiwan Masters has had a solid season with two top-10’s in September at the Yeangder TPC and Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship, and finished a creditable tied-11th in Thailand last week.
Shiv Kapur
Almost got his fifth Asian Tour victory last week in Thailand when he was one of the three players in the playoff won by John Catlin. Kapur had a spectacular back-nine on Sunday where he made five birdies and an eagle on holes 10-16 to get himself into contention.
Although it was not enough to get him the win in the end, the week spent with his coach on the bag should have his game in good shape for the remainder of the season.
Pavit Tangkamolprasert
Having come close to winning his second Asian Tour title at Thai Country Club last week where he was one of the three players in the playoff, Pavit looks to be in great form.
The 2016 Venetian Macao Open champion has secured his playing rights for the 2020 season with the tied-second last week, and should be able to play stress-free golf the rest of the year.
Rory Hie
Posting his breakthrough Asian Tour win at the Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship only two months ago, Hie should be very comfortable around the course.
Even though he is not the defending champion of this particular event this week, having won here so recently should have him playing with a lot of confidence.
Viraj Madappa
Playing in his second season on the Asian Tour Madappa has posted a tied-ninth at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters as his best finish of the year and is currently enjoying a solid stretch of events.
Including the top-10 in Taipei, he has also finished inside the top-25 in seven out of his last eight events and has not missed a cut since August. It would not be surprising to see Madappa have a top finish this week.
Ajeetesh Sandhu
The Indian has come close to winning twice this season with a second at the Bangabandhu Cup in April, and a tied-second at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters where only an untimely double-bogey on the 70th hole derailed his bid for a victory.
He also won the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational presented by TAKE Solutions on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) two weeks later and had a good tournament in Thailand last week where he finished tied-11th.
Rashid Khan
The two-time Asian Tour winner in 2014 has had a great season while playing on a country exemption after losing his card in 2018.
Khan has posted four top-10’s in only seven starts on the Asian Tour, plus two wins back home on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).
His best Asian Tour result of the year came at this course only two months ago, a tied-second at the Classic Golf and Country Club International Championship where he finished two shots behind the winner Hie.
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