Kuala Lumpur, March 20: Olle Nordberg provides his insights from the front lines ahead of the lucrative Maybank Championship, which will feature 156 players from 32 countries this week.
By Olle Nordberg, Former Asian Tour and European Tour professional
This year’s Maybank Championship will be the fourth edition of the event and for the third year in a row it is being held at Saujana GCC’s Palm Course, also known as the Cobra, in Kuala Lumpur. As in previous years it’s co-sanctioned with European Tour and the field includes ten players ranked inside the top 100 on the OWGR rankings.
Saujana has hosted a number of tour-events through the years, and many of the players have had chance to get familiar with the Cobra’s layout and know where to attack and where to be conservative.
The last two years have offered up some spectacular Sunday scoring in the final round, with Shubhankar Sharma setting the course on fire with a ten-under-par 62 in 2018, and Fabrizio Zanotti going low with a nine-under-par 63 in 2017. Both players staged dramatic come-from-behind victories by four and six shots respectively, so playing safe for the leader on Sunday is not really an option to win.
The defending champion Sharma obviously likes this course since he also finished tied-ninth here in 2017 and will be keen to offer up a strong defence of the title which helped him secure an invitation to the Masters Tournament last season.
He will however face stiff competition from other players looking to capture one of the best-looking trophies in golf, and based on current form the players below may very well be spearheading the charge:
Winner of the Oman Open on the European Tour two weeks ago, Kitayama also won the tri-sanctioned Mauritius Open in late 2018. Playing in his rookie Asian Tour season last year, he had three top 10 finishes in addition to the win: a tied-fourth at the ISPS Handa New Zealand Open, a tied-second at the Royal Cup and a tied-fourth at the Asia Pacific Diamond Cup. Ranked number 106 on the OWGR, Kitayama is known as one of the longest hitters on both the European and Asian Tours.
Coming off a fourth-place finish at his last event the 100th New Zealand Open a couple weeks ago, Jazz’s game has been on point since late last year. In his last 11 events he has finished inside the top 10 seven times, including a win at the SMBC Singapore Open, a second at the Indonesian Masters and a third at the Queen’s Cup Hosted by Jaidee Foundation. As of this week Jazz is ranked number 78 on the OWGR, and the highest-ranking Asian Tour member in the field.
Already has a win this season at the tri-sanctioned ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth. In this mixed stroke-play and match-play format event he eliminated Jazz Janewattanaond on the third knock-out hole in the second match-play round and saw off Paul Dunne 1-up in the semi-finals, before beating Adrian Otaegui in the finals 3&2. Fox also had tied-sixth finish at the Saudi international for a second top 10 finish this year. Currently ranked number 73 on the OWGR.
Looking back to the past two editions of the Maybank Championship to see what statistics have helped players to top finishes at Saujana, there have been some mixed results. Some players have GIR’d their way to a high finish, while others have putted and scrambled their way to the top.
However, if we look at a combination of statistics categories things look clearer. A total of 14 out of 20 from the last two years top 10 finishers would rank inside the top 10 in an un-official All-Round category based on last year’s Asian Tour statistics data.
If this is any guide to success this year, the following players would very much fit the profile for a high finish based on their 2018 Asian Tour statistics records:
- Sihwan Kim (All-Round #2)
On his way to finishing seventh in the HFH Standings in 2018, Sihwan had seven top 10 finishes, including a runner-up at the Yeangder TPC, third at the co-sanctioned Hero Indian Open and a tied-third at Queen’s Cup presented by Bangchak as best results. His statistics were solid across the board, and Sihwan also ranked fifth in birdies per round with 4.10 and second in total eagles with ten made during the season.
- John Catlin (All-Round #3)
With his three wins last year on the Asian Tour in coming at the Yeangder TPC, Sarawak Championship and Asia Pacific Classic, Catlin went from graduating from the Asian Development Tour in 2017, to becoming a multiple winner on the Asian Tour in 2018. He also racked up six other top 10 finishes along the way to a sixth place in the Habitat for Humanity Standings. Catlin’s best statistics category was Scrambling where he ranked second with a percentage of 68.10%, and he was also ranked tenth in Total Driving.
- Paul Peterson (All-Round #4)
Winning early in 2018 at the Japan Tour co-sanctioned Leo Palace21 Myanmar Open, Peterson was off to a good start to the season. In addition to the win in Yangon he had two tied-11th finishes at the Maybank Championship and ISPS Handa New Zealand Open and secured a runner-up finish at the Sarawak Championship in July. His best statistics category was GIR where he ranked first on the Asian Tour with 74.53%, and he was also ranked fourth in Driving Accuracy with 75% of fairways hit off the tee.
- Gaganjeet Bullar (All-Round #5)
In a season that saw him win his maiden European Tour title at the tri-sanctioned Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways, he also finished inside the top 10 in five other events that included two runner-up finishes at the Queen’s Cup Presented by Bangchak and the GS Caltex Maekyung Open. Bhullar was ranked number three in Driving Accuracy with 76% and ranked highly in GIR where he was tenth with 71.59%. Just coming off a fifth place at last week’s Magical Kenya Open on the European Tour.
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