The photo shows the golfer with his arm around his caddie. Theyâre both smiling. They should have been. Last year playing on PGA TOUR Series-China, the player, Malaysiaâs Arie Irawan, and the caddie, his wife of three weeks, the former Marina Malek, traveled to Guilin, China, where Arie played well at that weekâs tournament and was in contention before eventually settling for a tie for fourth.
Although Marina knew very little about golf, she was ready for the challenge of caddying, she loved who she was working for that week and her âbossâ was more than happy with her performance.
âIâm so lucky I have my wife here this week,â Arie said following his first round. âThis is the first time Marina is traveling and caddying for me, and sheâs also taking care of the food, so that makes it easy. It helps a lot having her out there. It just makes me more calm, and thatâs why I didnât make any bogeys today. She makes me happy.â
That joy turned to sadness in a stunning way Sunday morning in Sanya, China, as Arie never woke up, dying in his sleep in his hotel room as resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. He was 28. Â
Arie was in Sanya for another tournament, this time the Sanya Championship, the second event of the PGA TOUR Series-China season. Marina was back home in Malaysia.
Arie had missed the cut a week earlier in Chongqing and didnât play well in Sanya, not qualifying for weekend play again. But since he was already in the resort city bordering the South China Sea, he elected to stay on site in a hotel room he was sharing with fellow player Kevin Techakanokboon. His plan was to then travel to Haikou, about a 90-minute train ride on the north side of Hainan Island, for this weekâs Haikou Championship.
News of his death stunned everybody who knew Arie, an international player who travelled all over the world playing golf. Out of deference and respect, Tour officials delayed the start of the Sanya Championship final round and then ultimately cancelled it after announcing Arieâs death.
âIn the times I was with him or just around him, there was always a smile on his faceâwhether it was playing golf, him working out or just hanging out with friends. He always had a smile,â said Shotaro Ban, a Series member who was summoned to the scene early Sunday morning and performed CPR on Arie before emergency personnel arrived.
âI think anyone who met him or knew him realized he was an extremely genuine person. He didnât have that much to say, but he had a great heart, and his wife is just like him. Arie exemplified what it means to be a professional golfer, a husband and a friend in the true nature. Iâm just devastated by this loss.â
The PGA TOURâs Todd Rhinehart recently returned to the United States after living in Malaysia and serving as the CIMB Classic Executive Director. He said it was in 2015 whenArie became more than just an acquaintance. That year, the native Malaysian qualified for the tournament held in Kuala Lumpur. Irawan was one of three Malaysians in the field that week, the most in the tournamentâs history.
âHe was 24 at the time and was anxious and nervous to be playing in his first PGA TOUR event,â Rhinehart recalled. âOver the years, I saw and talked to him at TPC Kuala Lumpur while he was practicing as well as competing in our national qualifier for the CIMB Classic. He was not only one of Malaysiaâs most-talented golfers, he was also an incredible young man who served as a passionate ambassador for junior golf in the country.â
It was in Malaysia where Arie got his start in the game, taking up golf eight years after he was born on August 21, 1990, to Ahmad and Jeny Irawan. In 2006 and 2007, he finished runner-up at Faldo Series events in Malaysia, and as an 18-year-old, he won the Malaysian Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
With those successes, he began to attract attention from U.S. college coaches interested in securing his services. Arie elected to attend and play golf at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. While in college, he earned four letters, was an Academic All-American his junior year and earned his degree in management information systems. Upon graduation, he returned to Malaysia to embark on a professional golf career. Â
âHis death has been tough on all of us. Golf being such a tight-knit community, it really is a shock what has happened,â said veteran Benjamin Lein, who became friends withArie last year when he joined the Tour as a full member. In February and back in California before the start of the PGA TOUR Series-China season, Lein put together a foursome at Industry Hills Golf Club outside Los Angeles, inviting Arie to join him and fellow Series member Gunn Charoenkul, as well as Chinaâs Haotong Li, for a friendly game.
âIt just felt like no matter where in the world we were together, he was always the same, friendly, happy Arie,â Lein noted.
Li agreed with that assessment. The 2014 PGA TOUR Series-China Player of the Year learned of Irawanâs death while preparing to play his final round at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. âI canât believe it. He was such a nice guy, and I feel like itâs so unfair,â said Li, who met Arie for the first time that week in California as Li was preparing for the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship the following week. âWe had a great time playing. It was a really fun day, his wife was there and Gunnâs wife (Vichuda) was there, too. It was very comfortable. He was like an old friend even though I just met him. Thereâs nothing to say, really. Itâs just so very sad. I couldnât believe it when I read the news.â
âBeing on the road away from family is tough, especially numerous weeks at a time. Itâs always nice to have someone who points out the positive in every situation to keep us going,â Lein added. âThatâs what Arie did. He was a selfless friend who always made everyone else around him better in different ways. I never was able to thank him for that, but he will forever be close to my heart.â
Like many golfers playing at the PGA TOUR China-Series level, Arie had his ups and downs, the two missed cuts to begin the season certainly disappointing. His best season as a professional came in 2015 when he won two Asian Developmental Tour tournamentsâthe PGM Sime Darby Harvard Championship and the ICTSI Eagle Ridge Invitational. A shoulder injury from a motorcycle accident curtailed his momentum in 2016. He was out of action from March until mid-August that season, and he had since struggled to regain the form he showed in 2015.
âWe ran into each other and talked for 10 minutes about the status of his game while I was still in Malaysia,â Rhinehart added. âHe was very excited about the upcoming season on the China Series and was hoping to have a great year to qualify for the Web.com Tour as he had spent some time in California with his swing coach and enjoyed his time there.
âI canât believe heâs gone,â Rhinehart continued. âMy thoughts are about him and my prayers are with his family during this incredibly tough time.â
Perhaps Techakanokboon said it best when he described his close friend. âArie had a lot of experience and was wise beyond his years. He really carried himself as a professional all the time. Iâm going to miss him.â
PGA TOUR Series-China will honor the life of Irawan this week at the Haikou Championship, where the Tour will observe a moment of silence prior to the start of the tournament and players, staff, caddies and all others in attendance will receive an âARIEâ sticker honoring Irawanâs life.
