Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, March 9 - Danny Chia reinforced his reputation as Malaysia’s top golfer when he birdied the last hole to win the PGM Northport Glenmarie Masters by one shot over Nicholas Fung on Saturday.
Holding a three-shot lead heading into the final day, Chia posted a one-under-par 71 to complete a sensational wire-to-wire victory and became the first Malaysian to win an Asian Development Tour (ADT) event this season.
Highly rated Fung battled to a 69 courtesy of three straight birdies from hole two but had to settle for second at the RM200,000 (approximately US$65,000) ADT event staged at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club.
James Bowen of the United States extended his lead on the ADT Order of Merit with a third place result while Malaysian M. Sasidaran and Lindsay Renolds of Canada shared fourth.
After turning in 35, Chia had to endure a nervous closing seven holes when he had a double bogey on 12 which was later erased with two birdies. He was tied with Fung when he bogeyed 17 but calmly held his nerve to sink the winning birdie putt from six-feet.
“It was a fantastic feeling (making birdie on last)! Of all my wins, this is probably the hardest I had to fight for. Nicholas was really giving me a run,” said the 40-year-old, who totalled eight-under-par 280 and won US$11,375.
“This win means a lot to me because it shows that what I’ve been working on has paid off. It also shows that Malaysians can contend and win in an international event. The feeling is really great and every department of my game has improved,” said Chia.
“This year has been good to me so far and my confidence is high. The only thing I need to control is my expectations. It happened to me before when I had such high expectations and achieved nothing. Now, I just want to concentrate on playing well and let the outcome take care of itself,” he added.
Fung, who struggled with a back injury earlier in the week, was in position to edge Chia after a hot start but his title hopes faded when the birdies dried up.
“I had a bad first round because of my back injury. But I slowly recovered and so did my scores. Danny played well so I didn’t really feel that I could win. He was hitting the ball really good and close to the pin. He deserves to win,” said Fung.
Indonesian player George Gandranata finished one over for the tournament for a commendable share of 8th place, while countrymen Benny Kasiadi and Ian Andrew both had missed the cut by 2 shots earlier in the week.
The top three players on the ADT Order of Merit at the end of the season earn an Asian Tour card for 2014. The ADT will also offer World Golf Ranking points starting from this season.
Leading final round scores (Par 72):
280 - Danny CHIA (MAS) 67 68 74 71
281 - Nicholas FUNG (MAS) 73 69 70 69
285 - James BOWEN (USA) 68 71 76 70
287 - Lindsay RENOLDS (CAN) 73 73 70 71, M. Sasidaran (MAS) 74 71 70 72288 - Jakraphan PREMSIRIGORN (THA) 73 68 74 73, Mohamad Azman BASHARUDIN (MAS) 71 70 71 76
289 - Grant JACKSON (ENG) 70 71 77 71, George GANDRANATA (INA) 71 73 74 71
290 - Mitsuhiko HASHIZUME (JPN) 71 74 72 73, PARK Il-hwan (KOR) 71 71 73 75, Pavit TANGKAMOLPRASERT (THA) 70 72 73 75
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