RM3mil prize ‘jackpot’ in PGM Tour

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THE total prize purse for the Professional Golf Of Malaysia (PGM) Tour has topped the RM3mil mark with the addition of three new events.

There will be 19 tournaments in the 2012 calendar year, out of which six tournaments will be part of the Asian Development Tour. This year, only three tournaments were held under Asian Development Tour. The sponsors for the tour are CCM, MIDF, Sime Darby, Gatorade, North Port, PNB, UMW and I &P Group.

PGM chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said they were delighted to announce that the total prize money for the new season has been increased.

“A lot of positive things have developed for our local professionals in 2011. Besides having a local circuit, they had shown remarkable progress in their game. And now we are pleased to increase the PGM Tour to 19 legs. There will be one leg in each state while Malacca has two and Selangor five.

All drawn out: Ahmad Sarji (second from left) unveiling the 2012 PGM Tour.

“We are grateful to the golf clubs and sponsors. They have been supportive of the tour. Without their co-operation, it would not have been possible to make the tour a success. We have a vision — to have 20 Malaysians in the Asian Tour and five in the European Tour within the next five years,’’ said Ahmad Sarji.

The top 50 professionals in the 2011 PGM Order of Merit will earn automatic exemptions. Others will have to play in the two PGM Qualifying School.

The first will be from Jan 3-5 and the second from June 12-14. The PGM have decided to set a three-round score of 231 as the qualifying score.

The PGM will also have a qualifying round before each leg and have a five over par as the mark to gain entry for the particular competition.

The PGM Tour card is valid for the calendar year. It is from January to December. Even if a player qualifies in June, his Tour card is valid until December.

The 2011 tour culminated with the RM300,000 PGM Kinrara Masters at the Kinrara Golf Club.

However, next year, the event will be called the PGM Masters Invitational with some foreign players participating.

Ahmad Sarji said it was important for Malaysians to compete against foreigners to improve their game.

“They will get that chance in the ADT.

“Next season we have six and we can always look forward to have Malaysians winning. S. Sivachandran won the Malacca Classic which was part of the ADT. Others like Danny Chia and Shaaban Hussin have also been impressive.

“We would be happy to see more Malaysians in the Asian Tour next year,’’ said Ahmad Sarji.