SOFIAN KEPLI won the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) Satellite Tour event staged at Damai Laut Golf & Country Club in Lumut, Perak today.
In the feeder circuitâs second event of the season, and one played in difficult, dry conditions â on a course where the PGM Tourâs Swiss Garden Closed Championships were hosted last week with a winning score of just three-under â good scoring proved hard to come by again. In fact, the Satellite field struggled for a third successive day and it was reflected on the leaderboard where Sofianâs winning total was 20-over 236.
Runners-up and leading the amateursâ cause were Azmer Merzam (78) and H. Sanusi (78) with 244 totals.
Commenting on his first victory in a PGM Tour championship, Sofian said he was âvery happyâ to have won and planned to play in âa fewâ events on the Tour proper.
âIâll need to revise my work schedule to try and play on the Tour more often,â said the operations manager from Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club in Miri, Sarawak.
âI obviously would like to play every tournament but that will not be possible because of the financial aspect, but I do hope to play in some of the Tour stops, mainly those in East Malaysia, as thatâs where Iâm from,â he added.
The next tournament on the PGM Tour schedule is the Sime Darby Harvard Championship at Harvard Golf & Country Club in Bedong, Kedah from Feb 26-Mar 1.
Leading final round scores
236:Â Sofian Kepli 77-79-80
244: Azmer Merzam (A) 87-79-78, H. Sanusi (A) 84-82-78
253: Abdul Azim M. Junaidi (A) 84-85-84
265: Badiuzzaman Mohamad Nor (A) 95-92-78
277: Mohd Shafiz Abd Rahim (A) 92-96-89
