European Tour: What to Watch at the Maybank Championship
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – FEBRUARY 21: Marcus Fraser of Australia poses with the 2016 Maybank Championship Trophy. (Photo by Stanley Chou/Getty Images)
European Tour fans will be keeping an eye on the Maybank Championship in Malaysia this week.
European Tour players leave Dubai and jet to four continents in the next four weeks (one event being a World Golf Championship in Mexico). Malaysia is the Tour’s next stop, reaffirming its status as a tour stretching well beyond its nominal European borders.
The airfare miles on European Tour players’ and caddies will begin to rack up with this week’s stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malysia. Last year Marcus Fraser (-15) edged out Miguel Tabuena and Soomin Lee by two strokes to win the current iteration of the tournament’s inaugural running in 2016.
Before 2016, Malaysia played host to the Maybank Malaysian Open, a decades-old event on Tour.
Several major champions and top-50 golfers are in the field at a tournament where tournament organizers promise the golf is just the beginning of the entertainment on site under the umbrella of “golf like never before.”
This week’s venue has hosted European Tour events in the past, including one golfer who has fond memories teeing it up in the nation’s capital two decades ago.
Forecasts hint at a possible hot, but rainy weekend of golf in what is Malaysia’s northeast monsoon season. It could lead to a crazy finish down the stretch.
Here’s a look at what to watch at Saujana Golf and Country Club:
Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Schwartzel, Willett, Westwood headline the 156-player field
Looking at the hot-off-the-press February 6 Official World Golf Rankings, 2016 Masters champ, No. 15 Danny Willett, is the highest-ranked player teeing it up in Malaysia this week. Willet joins two other top-25 players and four more in the top 50.
In comparison, the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am draws four of the world’s top 10 (including Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth), four more in the top 25, and another eight in the top 50.
Kuala Lumpur is 16 hours ahead of Monterey, so there’s certainly room for both tournaments on our schedules this week.
Making the Maybank Championship an attractive watch this week are the likes of Charl Schwartzel, Ryder Cup members Lee Westwood, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Willett, and one of the hottest players in the world, 2016 Rookie of the Year and No. 39 Jeunghun Wang, a winner two weeks ago in Qatar.
Nine players who finished in the top 11 in Malaysia in 2016 will be back this year, including Soomin Lee. The then 22-year old South Korean appeared destined for his second European Tour win before carding to lose by two and tie for second.
Another who placed top 10 here last year to watch could be Spain’s Jorge Campillo. He tied for fourth down the road at Royal Selangor in 2016 and has made nine straight cuts since October. Despite a three-over 75 in round two, Campillo tied for 23rd competing against a healthy field at the Dubai Desert Classic last week.
Bovada on February 6 morning has tabbed Schwartzel and Cabrera Bello as co-favorites to walk away with €461,689 and the trophy (which is a pretty sweet one, at that) at +1000. Bernd Wiesberger isn’t far behind at +1100. Defending champ, No. 128 Marcus Fraser, isn’t thought too highly to repeat. He is tied for the 14th best odds at +4000, perhaps a product of a new venue this year as opposed to 2016 at Royal Selangor Golf Club.
Fan favorite, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, will be in Malaysia. He’s listed at +2500.
@ETWeekly: ETW comes from the Maybank Championship Malaysia this evening. We love this trophy… 🏆#ETW pic.twitter.com/JK6ZgvccjY
— European Tour Weekly (@ETWeekly) February 17, 2016
The list of players outside the line of entry into the tournament is somewhat impressive too: YE Yang, Alvaro Quiros, Simon Dyson, Stephen Gallacher and Ricardo Santos, among others.
Jun 18, 2016; Oakmont, PA, USA; Lee Westwood hits his tee shot on the 9th hole during the third round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Fans on site can look forward to a “Golf Like Never Before” experience
The European Tour isn’t the only one to make a stop in Kuala Lumpur; the PGA is there each October for the CIMB Classic. Still, like any tournament, there are distinctions that make the week unique from the others on a tour spanning six continents and dozens more countries.
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Event organizers are touting a “Golf Like Never Before” promotion at the tournament site. The overall theme encapsulates unique fan experiences: an Under Armour-sponsored yoga lesson and boot camp session; a dish available from a Michelin Star chef. Fashion shows and more give the tournament a festival-like vibe. Entry is also free for the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday.
For those viewing on TV, many stuck in cold winter climes can feast their eyes on the Palm course’s drastic slopes, deep ravines and array of tall palm trees that has hosted seven Malaysian Opens. You might even see a few monkeys out on the course.
“It’s changed a lot over the last 20 or so years,” Lee Westwood said in an Asian Tour press release of his first stop at Saujana. “It’s hard to believe it’s been that long but hopefully I can repeat what I did back in 1997.”
The Sauhana’s Palm Course
Saujana has earned a reputation as a difficult test for its elevation changes and undulating fairways. The last Malaysian Open held there in 2009 had a sizable 17-under-par winning score, but even the champ, Anthony Kang had one tough round of 74 on Thursday on the par-72, 7,186-yard track.
The Saujana’s Palm course was carved out of an old oil plantation in 1986. It’s nicknamed “The Cobra” because it “can be deadly to any golfer.” There is not much for thick rough surrounding the fairways, but Saujana touts numerous bunkers as penal enough to reward accuracy off the tee.
The course’s greens are Tidwarf Bermuda grass and fairways are Bermuda.
In the US, live coverage of all four rounds runs on Golf Channel from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. EST.
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