IO, BOGOR – The international group tournament “Indonesian Golf Tour (IGT) – Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Championship 2019” (“IGT-PGM Championship 2019”), which will pit teams from two neighboring countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, will be held on 15-17 October di Gunung Geulis Golf Club, Bogor. Indonesia is hosting this match play group tournament.
“I am really happy that the IGT-PGM Championship is now in its fourth year. This year, Indonesia is hosting the IGT-PGM again. The tournament started from the idea that I and Tun Ahmad Sarji, Chairman of the Professional Golf of Malaysia Tour, had to meet up two golf communities from the two neighboring countries and jointly develop good golf competition between us. The event then grew into a competition that encourages the players of both countries to continue to improve their abilities by competing in a match play format,” Jimmy Masrin, founder and Chairman of Indonesian Golf Tour said. “The match play format, which is originally used in the Ryder Cup, is when two opponents compete with each other. It turns out that it causes more excitement in each match, as the players are pushed to play smart and win each match.”
This year, the mission of Indonesia’s representatives from the Indonesian Golf Tour is to take back the championship trophy which Malaysia won last year. In the third iteration, Indonesia as guest was forced to admit the superiority of host country Malaysia with a score of 13-15. However, this year, the IGT team is optimistic that it can bring home the prestigious trophy. Team Captain Jubilant “Teddy” Arda, who led the IGT team to victory in the 2017 tournament, expressed it this way: “We remain optimistic that we have the chance to win. We have evaluated last year’s defeat and prepared strategies in order to be able to win this round,” Teddy said. “We remain wary of Malaysia, which currently has the ambition to hold on to the trophy, by bringing in a stronger and better prepared team.”
The composition of Indonesia’s team has changed slightly. Teddy is keeping 9 out of the 12 players who battled in the previous IGT-PGM Championship at Tiara Melaka, Johor: George Gandranata, Rinaldi Adiyandono, Elki Kow, Adrian Halimi, Jordan Irawan, Kevin C. Akbar, Naraajie E. Ramadhan P. (amateur), Jonathan Wijono (amateur), and Almay Rayhan (amateur). The three vacant spots are filled in by players who have improved their performance greatly within the past six months: Danny Masrin, Joshua Andrew Wirawan, and Kentaro Nanayama (amateur). Danny himself is a champion of the Credit Suisse Match Play Championship 2019, previously held in the West Course, by beating Adrian Halimi.
Malaysia will be giving its all to defend its title. The defeat in Riverside in 2017 has given valuable lessons to our neighbor, allowing them to take the trophy last year. To further their own ambition, Malaysia is bringing in an even stronger team. They keep eight of the team members who brought Malaysia victory in 2018: Nachimuthu Ramasamy, Shahriffuddin Bin Ariffin, Mohd Sukree Bin Othman Rashid, Daeng Abdul Rahman Bin Abd Aziz, Siva Chandhran Supramaniam, Kim Leun Kwang, and Amir Nazrin Bin Jailani. The four new faces in the Malaysian team are: M. Rizal Bin Amin, Razli Bin Yahya, Choo Zhe Ming, and Nicholas Fung Chee Yung. The last mentioned is a respectable player in the Asian Tour and Asian Development Tour (ADT), with four Asian Tour and three ADT titles under his belt.
There are three types of matches to be held in the IGT-PGM Championship 2019 match play: foursome, fourball, and single. In the first two days (15-16 October), the tourney will consist of four foursome matches (morning) and four fourball matches (afternoon). In the final day, there will be 12 single matches, making a total of 28 matches and a possible maximum score of 28 points. The team with the score of at least 14.5 points will win the tournament. However, if both teams have the exact same score (14 points each), the previous IGT-PGM Championship 2019 winner will keep the title. IGT-PGM Championship 2019 presents a total prize of IDR 600 million, with the winner keeping 65% of the total prize and the loser keeping the remaining 35%.