Kota Kinabalu: It was a tight opening day for the 120th Malaysian Amateur Open held at the Sabah Golf and Country Club (SGCC) here on Wednesday.
There was a two-man tie at the top of the men’s category at the end of the first round with Sarawak’s recent Sukma gold medallist Anson Yeo and Minsu Kim of South Korea leading the field with one-over 71.
They were closely followed by another Malaysian Zia Iqmal Abdul Rashid and Vietnamese Nguyen Anh Minh who were a shot behind at par-72, while in joint fifth place and another shot further adrift were Coby Corruthers of Australia and Indonesian Randy Arbenata Mohd Bintang.
The ladies category was also a very tight affair with hot favourite Hyojin Yang of South Korea taking the lead with her score of one-over 73 followed by Thailand’s Prim Prachnalom at 74 and Malaysian Hee Jie Pang at 75.
In the team event, South Korea led the pack with four-over par and Malaysia 2 are in second place, one shot behind followed by Singapore at eight-over.
A total of 108 players are taking part in the four-day tournament regarded as one of the region’s oldest amateur tournaments.
The last time Sabah played host to the event was in 2017 at the Nexus Golf Resort Karambunai.
The opening ceremony held on Tuesday was officiated by Tan Sri Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor, President of the Malaysian Golf Association.
He welcomed all the participants and expressed his appreciation to all the sponsors and partners, especially Tourism Malaysia, Sabah Golf Association (SGA) and SGCC as well as the organising committee led by Dato’ Zulkifli Ismail.
