The Malaysian Golf Association (MGA) recently held a Golf Camp for its Malaysian squad of junior players at Desaru Golf & Country Club from February 19 - 22, 2010. A total of 14 junior golfers accompanied by two Pro Teaching Golfers, Mr V. Gunalen and En Faridil arrived at Desaru Golden Beach Hotel gleaming with happiness and excitement as they could not wait to start off with the Golf Camp. Here was where it all started.....at Desaru Golf & Country Club.
15 year old Jeremiah Kim from KL (a Year 10 student at Cempaka International School) started playing golf at a very tender age of 2 ½ years old from following his father to the golf courses. His father who started playing golf in his teens had inspired him to develope the deep love and passion for golf. Jeremiah had participated in many local and international golf tournaments and his first tournament was in 2002 – the local Sportsexcel in KL. Unfortunately, he did not win anything, but he gained a fruitful experience indeed. His first win was in 2003 at the Chief Minister of Sarawak Cup under 10 years old. He won the 1st prize trophy! He then moved on to his first international tournamanet at the Philippines Junior Open in Manila in 2004 (for 10 years old below) and he got 2nd place and won a trophy! Following that achievement, he participated in the Callaway Junior World in San Diego, California in July 2007 and obtained 31st place. To-date he has participated in hundreds of local and international golf tournaments as he takes part on an average of about 30-40 tournaments yearly. His advice to those young people who wish to take up golf seriously, are first of all, you must:
(1) Love the game
(2) Sacrifice time from spending with friends and classmates etc
(3) Practice, practice and practice
(4) Focus on the game, and
(5) Exercise discipline
He said that the future prospects of golf in Malaysia is very promising and bright for the younger generation because now there are so many golf clinics and trainings being offered and the golf facilities at the golf clubs are much better now than in the past. His personal goal in 5 year’s time after finishing college is that he wants to make golf as a professional career and hopes to be one of Malaysia’s leading golfers someday. Currently he is undergoing training and coaching under a US Pro Golfer, Mr Dean Hartman at the Pro Tour Golf Learning Centre at the Glenmarie Golf & Country Club. According to him he feels very lucky as his parents give him a lot of support and encouragement to play golf and to excel in it. He also knows how to juggle his time and manage his time well with school, friends, family as well as his other loves.
Another 15 year-old Vivienne Chin is a student at the All Saints High School in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. She started playing golf at the age of 9 when her father asked her to give it a try and just after 2 days, she fell in love with the sport. She is, indeed, very much inspired by her father. Her trainer, Australian Duncan Moodie teaches her at Ligas, Sabah where she is a student at the Pacific Golf Academy there. She first started to participate in tournaments in 2003 at the Sabah International Junior Masters below 10 years old and won a trophy for the 3rd prize. Her first International Golf Tournament was the Brunei Amateur Open in 2005 and won the 3rd prize as well. At an average she participates in about 20 tournaments in a year. Her advice to those who are interested to play golf are:
(1) Always practice hard.
(2) Hard work will pay off.
(3) Appreciate time management.
Her personal goal is to play under par consistently and wishes to see herself play very good and competitive golf in another 5 year's time. She aspires to be at the top 5 women golfer in Asia. According to her, she thinks that the future prospects of golf in Malaysia is very bright and very promising because there are abundant of opportunities for anyone who wishes to play golf professionally and the cash rewards (cash prizes) are very high. At the same time, there are many pro golfers around to coach and train golfing. However, she also stresses that academic excellence is also very important as this will help young golfers to gain scholarships and funding to turn into pro. She further said that the Golf Camp which was conducted at Desaru Golf & Country Club from February 19 - 22, 2010 was very good, very effective, a lot of fun and that she had enjoyed the Golf Camp Programme. At the same time she also managed to improve her stamina and fitness as well as internal strength from the motivational talks at the Golf Camp.
Ainil Johani Bte Abu Bakar, aged 20, hailed from Sg. Buluh, Selangor. Like Vivien, she also started playing golf at the age of 9 years old. It all started when her uncle introduced the game of golf to her father and then her father introduced golf to her brother. And when she saw both her father and brother were always travelling playing golf together, that was when she decided to follow them to the tournaments. Later her interest in golf started to developed. She finished her High School at the Hills International College in Brisbane in Australia at the age of 17. But before she went to school in Brisbane, she was attached to the Sports School in Bukit Jalil for 7 months. Her personal goal and priority now is to turn pro in one year's time. She said she will put her college on hold to enable her to focus and concentrate on turning pro. Her brother, Mohd Johan Abu Bakar, aged 26, turned pro at the young age of 22. She said that her brother is her biggest fan and biggest inspiration as well as her strongest supporter. Not only that, Johan also helps her a great deal with skills development and techniques in playing a better game. In short, her brother is her mentor! Her experience includes spending about 2 years in the US under a pro golfer trainer Mr Kevin Smeltz at the David Leadbetter Academy in Champion Gates Golf Club, Florida. She has 4 siblings but only she and her brother are playing golf and they are very supportive of each other and would share new knowledge, skills and tips with each other. She participates in about 30 local and international tournaments in a year. Her first local golf tournament was at the Sportsexcel at the age of 9 years old. Then her first international golf tournament was in Singapore at the age of 11 and won the 2nd prize. Then in 2006, she participated in the World Junior Tournament at Torres Pines Golf Club in San Diego at the age of 17 years old and won 6th placing that had given her a handsome trophy. Her ambition is to be the first Malaysian woman golfer at the top 10 in the world. Her biggest success was at the SEA Games in 2007 in Thailand where she had won a bronze medal for Malaysia at the Amateur Open. She said that at the moment there is not many girls who are playing golf and she encourages all the girls to participate in this sport to bring up the level and standard of women golfers in Malaysia. She also advised them to stay focus and be disciplined when they play golf to enable themselves to achieve their personal goals. She also commented that the golf scene in Malaysia has evolved and changed a lot over the years and the world now has recognized Malaysian golfers, unlike in the past. The future of golfing as a professional career in Malaysia now is much more promising than before as there are new techniques being taught by many more pro golfers. Meanwhile, there are also many international standard golf courses and professional golf camps that are being offered, not forgetting to mention that the cash rewards through tournaments are now very high. Unfortunately, she also said that there is no pro girl’s tournament in Malaysia, which is rather sad. She wants to see more girls being serious to play golf and make it big or even a professional career someday.
We at Desaru Resort would like to wish all our 14 Junior Golfers in the Malaysian squad under MGA all the very best of luck and may each one of them make it to the top among world's top golfers, or in Asia at the very least. We are confident that they would make Malaysians very proud in the world's golf circuit someday. Go and conquer the game, guys!!
Written By: Marketing & Communications Department, Desaru Golden Beach Hotel
No comments:
Post a Comment