The European Tour has left South Africa now and heads back to Asia and further East for the next few weeks with the newly formed Maybank Championship Malaysia the first of a series events in Asia and beyond.
This isn’t the first tournament in Malaysia on the European Tour, the Malaysian Open has been a regular event but a new course and a new set up comes into play this week and you have to say a fairly decent field has been assembled.
That field is headed by the recent Dubai Desert Classic champion Danny Willett but major champions Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen and Darren Clarke will be opposing him in what should be a good week of golf.
The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur still gets to stage the tournament but it will be the Royal Selangor Golf Club which plays host. This course did host the Malaysian Open in 2002 so it hasn’t been used before but it is said to have undergone massive change since then.
So what do we know about the course? Well not much in fairness but looking at all the pictures and flyover pieces there are online it looks like a treelined course. Water is in play on a few of the holes and the greens don’t look terribly big so I think there is going to be a real emphasis on accuracy and control of the ball this week.
The course itself is a par 71 which measures 7,079 so it isn’t especially long but looks a good test of an all-round game. Maybe the emphasis on putting isn’t as big this week as most people will be on these greens for the first time but ball strikers should come to the fore.
Willett begins the week as the favourite to win at 10/1 and based on his Dubai win that is fair enough. He had three top five finishes in the other Malaysian event and has a decent enough record overall in Asia so he’s a worthy favourite. Whether he is a tempting enough price is up for others to decide.
Joost Luiten, Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer all shared second favouritism at 18/1 with Rafael Cabrera-Bello at 22/1 and Matthew Fitzpatrick at 25/1. It is 33/1 bar the six men named in a really competitive field.
I’m going for someone slightly bigger than that 33/1 bracket in the form of Soren Kjeldsen, a man who I fancy is on the edge of a real breakthrough in 2016. 2015 was kind to Kjeldsen as he won in Ireland and had a number of strong finishes and he looks ready to back that up.
He was in the top 10 on a course far too long for him in Dubai two weeks ago and has begun the season well. We know he rarely misses the fairways and his iron play is usually immaculate so if he can get the ball in the hole on the greens his strategical style should go very close this week.
Another player who rarely misses the fairways and greens is Gregory Bourdy and he’s worth a go this week. Bourdy has already finished the runner up in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at the beginning of the season and he was 13th in Qatar recently having led at halfway but then got caught out by the wind.
Bourdy is clearly in good form and he seems to enjoy Malaysia too. He has a second placed finish and a top five as well as two other top 20 finishes in the country so his best golf seems to come out in these conditions which is encouraging. I’m not entirely sure the old course suited him but this one will so he’s a big price this week.
Scott Hend is something of an Asian specialist and while he might not be the most accurate off the tee the shortness of this course means he doesn’t have to give everything an insane rip. That should mean he stays in play much more which could be significant.
The big hitting Aussie has already posted a top 10 in Dubai this season and he has three top 20 finishes in the last four years in Malaysia so he is hitting it nicely when he gets to Kuala Lumpur. Hend won in Macau towards the end of last year and his putting really seems to come alive in Asia. He could be a big price this week.
My final pick is a man I’ve taken in the past in Wade Ormsby. Ormsby is another of those players who won’t destroy a course with power but bring precision and strategy to the party and he’s very much in the game. That’s the test we have this week.
Ormsby’s current form doesn’t jump off the page at the minute but he’s yet to be on a course that suits like this one will. More encouragingly is the fact he’s been in the top 20 in Malaysia for the last two years, again on a track that wasn’t ideal for him. This one should be so at the price on offer I’ll pay to see how close he goes.
Back S.Kjeldsen to win Maybank Championship Malaysia (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 36.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-5)
Back G.Bourdy to win Maybank Championship Malaysia (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Ladbrokes (1/4 1-5)
Back S.Hend to win Maybank Championship Malaysia (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Coral (1/4 1-5)
Back W.Ormsby to win Maybank Championship Malaysia (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with BetVictor (1/4 1-5)
