KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian golfers will make the limited field of 78 players for this year’s CIMB Classic at the TPC Kuala Lumpur in Bukit Kiara on Oct 11-14.
The winner of the CIMB National Championship (on Sept 25-28) and the highest ranked national player on the Official World Golf Ranking (as of Oct 1) will be offered spots in the event.
Defending champion Pat Perez of the United States has also confirmed his participation in one of Asia Pacific’s richest tournaments. It will also feature 60 golfers from the 2017-18 PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings.
PGA Tour vice president and executive director Todd Rhinehart assured that they have no plans to move the tournament from Malaysia.
“We have been having a great partnership with the Malaysian government, CIMB and other companies, and we will continue to move forward,” he said at the tournament’s official launch here on Tuesday.
The event is co-sanctioned by Asian Tour and the Professional Golf Association of Malaysia.
It will be held at the West course of TPC after it was closed after the conclusion of last year’s edition.
“We’re very excited as many of you know and it’s (the West Course) has been closed since last year and this month they’re going to reopen to members. (They) changed the grass (tiff bermuda), which is faster and better,” he added.
Also present were Deputy Sports Minister Steven Sim, CIMB Group chief executive officer (CEO) Tengku Datuk Sri Zafrul Aziz and Tourism Malaysia chairman Datuk Ahmad Shah Hussein Tambakau.