KUCHING: More than 100 junior golfers from 14 local and foreign golf clubs will participate in the 16th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup International Junior Golf Championship at Kelab Golf Sarawak (KGS).
Sarawak Golf Association (SGA) president Hoan Kee Hock said that the tournament will see many talented boys and girls in this region playing in one of the region’s prestigious tournaments that will tee off from Nov 16 to 18.
“I am satisfied with the good response from participants towards the tournament and happy to see many new players from overseas who are expected to participate in this year’s event,” he said during a press conference at KGS in Petra Jaya yesterday.
“But of course, for our local youth golfers, the championship will serve as a good avenue to gain exposure and experience while competing with their counterparts from other countries,” he added.
Hoan revealed that the association has entered all of its Sarawak Sukma squad trainees in the event and they are expected to give the other competitors a good fight in view of their home ground advantage.
“We expect the competition will be exciting because our Sukma trainees are also taking part and they will surely try to capture the championship title as well finish among the top 10,” he enthused and expressed optimism for the championship to bring the best out of the junior golf in the region.
Hoan disclosed that SGA is also planning to better improve the staging of the championship and to promote it to junior golfers from US, UK and possibly to European countries in order to put the event on the world junior golfing map.
“After having it for so long, SGA will look into ways on how to improve the nature of the championship and to find better means to promote it so that the Sarawak golf fraternity can benefit from the influx of young golfers and their families coming from overseas.”
He expressed the association’s deepest appreciation to the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem for his consent to become the patron for the championship.
Hoan said Adenan’s support and encouragement to SGA has further motivated the association to work even harder in making the championship the premier international junior event in the region for many years to come.
“We are truly thankful to our chief minister who has been supporting and encouraging us to go further in promoting golf in Sarawak and to attract more golfers from overseas to have a good golfing experience here,” he concluded.
The participants from the 14 teams who had confirmed to come for the event include those from Malaysia Golf Association (MGA) and International Sports Federation of Thailand. They are divided into five age groups.
This year the young golfers will play in the Matang and Santubong courses.
Last year, the boy’s title was won by Bryan Teo from Penang while the girls champion was Siti Zulaikhaa from Selangor.
At the conference, it was also announced that MGA had awarded the host job of the MGA Amateur Open 2015 to Sarawak and the four-day event will be staged at KGS by the end of next year.
The last time Sarawak held this largest amateur tournament that had attracted amateur golfers form Asia Pacific region was in 2009 at the same venue.
It was also disclosed at the press conference that golfers from Sabah and Sarawak will be playing the SGA Cup 2014 from Nov 26-28 at KGS. The golfers will follow the Ryder Cup format in the tournament and each team should have 14 players inclusive of two reserve players.