Melbourne, November 20: Reigning Order of Merit champion Gavin Green of Malaysia hopes to make his maiden trip to Australia a memorable one by putting up a strong showing with compatriot Ben Leong at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf starting Thursday.

Green and Leong, both making their World Cup debut this week, believe they can work together effectively and produce the fireworks for Team Malaysia when they tee off for the prestigious event at The Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne.

They will be vying for the coveted trophy against 27 other countries, including 2016 champion Denmark made up of Thorbjørn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen, in the US$7 million event which is celebrating its 59th edition this week.

The 24-year-old Green, who kept his European Tour card for the next season after enjoying a commendable rookie year, is determined put up a performance worthy of his status as the reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion in the Melbourne showpiece.

Ben Leong of Malaysia

Leong, who was picked by Green, is proud to be representing Malaysia in the prestigious event and hopes to repay the faith by putting in every effort to ensure a good week at the World Cup of Golf.

Tickets are now on sale and ticket options range from Wednesday practice round tickets starting at $22, single-day competitive round tickets starting at $31 and tickets to the upgraded MacKenzie Club (Thursday to Sunday) starting at $84. Weekly tickets are also available for $122, with a MacKenzie Club option priced at $295.

Ticket buyers are reminded that youth 16 and under are admitted to the event free of charge when accompanied by a ticketed adult. To purchase tickets or find more information on ticket options, fans can log on to www.WorldCupofGolf.com.

Did you know?

• Malaysia will be represented by World Cup debutants Gavin Green and Ben Leong this week. They will play against Team Zimbabwe (Scott Vincent and Benjamin Follett-Smith) in the first match of the Fourball at 8.20am local time on Thursday.
• Malaysia’s best finish was in 1994 when M. Ramayah and the late P. Gunasegaran emerged ninth in Puerto Rico while at the 2006 World Cup in Melbourne, Danny Chia and Nicholas Fung ended up joint 22nd.
• Leong won his first Asian Tour title in 2008 before suffering from a disc prolapse in 2012. He has shown signs of returning to his best form in the last few years. Leong, a two-time Asian Development Tour (ADT) winner, has claimed two top-10s on the Asian Tour so far this season.
• Green, who claimed his maiden Asian Tour victory in Chinese Taipei last year, became the first Malaysian to lift the Asian Tour Order of Merit trophy in 2017.
• Green played his way onto the main Tour from the ADT, where he has won on three occasions. He finished second on the 2016 ADT Order of Merit to earn his Asian Tour card for 2017.
• Green kept his European Tour card for the next season after finishing in 84th position on the Race to Dubai rankings.

Players’ quotes:

Gavin Green (Mas)

We have to wait and see what the weather does this week. It is going to be another week of rain. Ben and I will try and figure out a plan and strategy and do what we need to do on this course. Hopefully we can pull it off.

The course is looking good. Got to keep the ball on the fairways out there. Some holes we can take advantage of out there so hopefully I get to tee off on those holes for foursomes. The holes that we need to hit it straight, we will probably give it to Ben.

The wind is going to be strong this week. We just have to wait and see what happens. On a course like this where it’s a little bit tighter, we got foursomes and we got Ben to hit it on the fairways and I won’t have problems hitting my second shots.

I won’t have trouble stopping the ball on the greens. For fourballs, we can both have a go at it. It all depends on the wind. If it switches on some holes, we have to change our strategy. It’s going to be fun.

It’s my first World Cup appearance and also my first time in Australia. I’m very excited and looking forward to it. We played a lot of tournaments back home in Malaysia so we’re pretty familiar with each other’s games.

We have got nothing to lose this week. We will just go out there, enjoy and do the best we can. We have an idea of what we have to do already. I will probably take on the longer holes and Ben will take the straighter ones.

Ben Leong (Mas)

It’s good to be here. We’re in Australia. It’s nice. It seems like the weather is going to be bad this weekend but so far so good. We’ll see how it goes. It’s good to see Gavin. I’m sure we will have a lot of fun.

The course is playing firm and fast. It’s looking great. My game is feeling good as well. Like what Gavin said, we just got to manage our games here. We just got to keep it on the low side. We just afford to hit it to the short sides because it’s quite impossible to get up and down.

You just got to know where to miss it. We sort of have an idea on our strategy already but we’re still working on it. It depends on the weather as well.

Gavin’s been busy in Europe. I didn’t have a chance to meet him back home. We kind of just bumped into each other here [laughs]. We haven’t played much golf as amateurs together but we played a lot of tournaments on our domestic circuit back home and on the Asian Development Tour as well.

This week will be good preparation for us for the upcoming 2019 season I believe. Europe for Gavin and myself in Asia. Even if we put each other in bad positions, it’s a good way to learn and try to recover because that’s where it matters the most.

Our experiences from this week will make a lot of difference in our games I believe.