KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Open golf championship is set to make a return to the Asian Tour next year after a four-year absence.
The Asian Tour announced today that the Malaysian Open, scheduled for Feb 15-18, will tee off its premier circuit for the new season.
The venue for the tournament is yet to be announced, but it will carry a prize purse of US$1 million (RM4.63 million), the same as the previous edition in 2020, and will feature a 144-man field.
The last Malaysian Open took place at the Kota Permai Golf and Country Club in Shah Alam, where American Trevor Simsby emerged triumphant in a three-way playoff against Australia's Andrew Dodt and American Jarin Todd.
The Malaysian Open was one of only four tournaments completed on the Asian Tour in the first quarter of 2020 before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Malaysian Open will be the second major golf event to return to home soil, following the Maybank LPGA Championship in October.
Incepted in 1962, the Malaysian Open has a rich history with the period between 1999 and 2015 particularly noteworthy, as the tournament was also sanctioned by the European Tour. Former world No. 1s such as England's Lee Westwood, Fiji's Vijay Singh and South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen were among the notable winners.
The best-ever achievement by a Malaysian was by the late P. Gunasegaran, who finished second in 1994 at the Royal Selangor Golf Club.