No appearance fees, no Monty

15/01/1999

THE issue of appearance fees may be the reason why Malaysian golf fans
won't enjoy the privilege of watching European No 1 Colin Montgomerie in
action at the US$750,000 (RM2.85mil) Benson and Hedges Malaysian Open
championship on Feb 4-7.
Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, who have both confirmed for the date at
Saujana Golf and Country Club, were offered appearance fees. Montgomerie
wasn't.
"Westwood and Clarke have always received an appearance fee to play in
Malaysia. However, Montgomerie was not approached," said a member of the
organising committee.
Montgomerie, Europe's top money winner for the last four years, is
expected to play in the US$1 million Dubai Desert Classic to be held a
week after the Malaysian Open.
Westwood, Europe's No 2, and Clarke, who is No 3, will join 65 other
European pros in the tournament, which is the fourth leg of the European
Tour this year.
The Open, founded in 1962, was previously aligned to the Asian Tour.
The Asian challenge in the Open this year could come from South Korea's
Kang Wook-soon, last season's top money winner in the Asian PGA Tour.
Kang will join the likes of Frankie Minoza of the Philippines and
India's Jeev Milka Singh as Asia's best hopes.
Kang won the final two strokeplay events on the 1998 Asian PGA Tour -
the Hong Kong Open and the Omega PGA championship - to edge last year's
Malaysian Open champion Ed Fryatt of England in the race for the Order of
Merit.
Fryatt, who beat Westwood in a thrilling playoff last year, has also
confirmed his entry for the event, which is co-sanctioned by the Asian PGA
and European PGA Tours.
The other challengers from the Asian PGA include China's No 1 Zhang
Lian-wei and Thai stars Boonchu Ruangkit and Prayad Marksaeng.
Also on the list are South Korean veteran Park Nam-sin, Lu Wen-Teh and
Lin Keng-chi of Taiwan.
Ali Kadir, M. Ramayah, Danny Chia and P. Gunasegaran will be gunning for
the title which has always eluded Malaysian golfers.
Kang's victories at the HK Open and Omega PGA brought his number of
titles to four and placed him second in the Order of Merit. On the money
list, he came out tops with US$150,771.
His performance dipped alarmingly after his Tour triumph in 1996 but
weight training and a full recovery from a string of injuries helped him
climb up the ladder.
Asia's golfing record books were rewritten when Kang won the Omega PGA
championship, making him the first player to win the Order of Merit twice
and also the first to record back-to-back Tour victories.
Completing a remarkable end to the year, the unassuming South Korean won
by three shots from Taiwan's Hsieh Chin-sheng with a final round four-
under 66 for a four-round aggregate of 17-under 263.
(END)