Brunei to tee off on Asean Tour

BRUNEI is on its way to the Asean PGA Tour.

The good news came yesterday during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Professional Golfers' Association of Brunei Darussalam (Brunei PGA) and the Asean PGA at the VIP conference room of the Royal Brunei Recreation Club (RBRC) in Berakas.

Signing on behalf of the Brunei PGA were the president, Dato Paduka Hj Hamzah Hj Salleh, the Chairman-cum-Chief Executive Officer of the Management Committee, Hj Abdul Majid Ahmad and the Tour Official, Elyas Azri.

Honourable Chairman of the Asean PGA, AC Wong, its Executive Director, Ramlan Haron, and Marketing Manager of World Sports Group, Elliot Murdoch, signed on behalf of the Asean PGA.

Present as the guest of honour to witness the signing was Dato Paduka Hj Jemat Hj Ampal, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

The Brunei PGA and its Asean counterpart are looking at introducing the Brunei event soon possibly this year.

The Brunei PGA, officially registered with the Registrar of Societies of the Royal Brunei Police Force on Dec 4 last year, recently established a working relationship with the Asean PGA to co-sanction new professional tournaments in Brunei.

Besides putting Brunei on the Asean PGA Tour, it hopes that this working relationship will help produce more professional golfers in Brunei. The country has three professional golfers, Pg S Hassanal Al-Haj PPN Pg Hj Omar, Faiz Damit and Ak Wira Pg Salleh.

This should also provide more opportunities for local players to play in regional tournaments.

"The main reason for signing the MoU is to promote professional golf (in the country). The more golfers we get the better. We're hoping to attract professionals from other countries to compete here as well. Hopefully, this will motivate our golfers to turn pro," said Dato Paduka Hj Hamzah, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

Brunei's professional golfing body is also hoping to run smaller tournaments to be hosted by the various golf clubs in the Sultanate.

The Asean PGA Tour will embark on its fifth season in May boasting a record prize money of US$685,000, which is over US$100,000 more than last year, and nine tournaments.

The Singha Pattaya Open will be the curtain raiser and will be played at the Burapha Golf Club in May in Thailand.

The Singha Esan Open and the ICTSI MT Malarayat Championships also in Thailand will be on the schedule as well.

The Asean PGA Tour will also welcome on board six new competitions with four of them to be held in Indonesia. The other two are to take place in Malaysia.

The Bali Heritage, Lombok Heritage, The Heritage and Ancora Classic will be the Indonesian additions while the Malaysian events are yet to be finalised.

Among the big names playing on the Asean PGA Tour are Singapore's Mardan Mamat, who was voted Most Inspiring Performance of the Year last season, and last season's Player of the Year Nicolas Fung of Malaysia.The Brunei Times