Teenager Alvin Hiew won the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Development Qualifying School Circuit event by two strokes at Johor Golf & Country Club today.
The 17-year-old schoolboy, who said he is familiar with the course given that the Johor Sukma team trains there, shot a closing one-over 73 to finish with a 4-over 220 total in the RM15,000 tournament.
The top-six all earned PGM Tour playing cards and only one of them – Md Zamri Parian – was a professional.
In second place was Alex Tiong, whose one-under 71 was the joint low round of the third and final day. Muhd Zafran Abdullah, who was third on 10-over 226, also shot a last day 71.
Zamri (77) was joint fourth with Irfan Syahmi Norshah (78) on 228, while Lee Chong Li (81) was another three strokes back on 231.
Alvin, who won two junior tournaments in the United States last July, said he was “very happy” to have claimed the title, which he accomplished with a wire-to-wire performance.
“This is very nice,” he said of victory, before adding that he had no intentions of playing “too much golf” this season as it is his last year in high school.
“I will be focusing on my studies mostly,” he pointed. “But eventually, it is my dream to turn professional – after college.”
Meanwhile, Zafran said he too was happy with his performance at Johor Golf & Country Club.
“I shot one-under-par today and for me that is very encouraging. I enjoyed the round and I am also happy to have finished second. My first round (82) let me down, but I came back with a 73 and 71 over the last two days which was satisfying after that port start,” added the 17-year-old, who is also from Johor and has been playing golf just on six years now.
The next PGM Qualifying School event will be held at Danau Golf Club in Bangi, Selangor from April 27-29.
Leading Third Round Scores
220 Alvin Hiew (A) 71-76-73
222 Alex Tiong (A) 73-78-71
226 Muhd Zafran Abdullah (A) 82-73-71
228 Md Zamri Parian 75-76-77, Irfan Syahmi Norshah (A) 78-72-78
231 Lee Chong Li (A) 76-74-81
234 Ruhaizad Hashim 82-80-72, Noel Faizal Hassan 78-76-80
235 Chai Cheng Teck (A) 77-77-81, Wong Tung Ann (A) 76-79-80
236 Marcus Kok Lizhe (A) 76-80-80
237 Aaron Cheong (A) 79-79-79
239 Shah Irwan Rusli (A) 77-82-80
242 Ng Yau Loong (A) 80-82-80
249 M. Khairullah Munawar (A) 81-88-80
