SOUTH Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, the newly crowned Masters champion, will be among the draw-card for the Maybank Malaysian Open starting on Thursday at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.The others with hot putters are world No 1 Martin Kaymer of Germany, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa and Rory McIlroy of Ireland.
Schwartzel beat a field of renowned golfers including Tiger Woods of the US and Lee Westwood of England, at Augusta National.
He birdied the last four-holes at Augusta and shot 66 for a 14-under-par 274, winning two shots over Australian’s Adam Scott and Jason Day.
His four-shot final round winning comeback is the largest at the Masters Tournament since Sir Nick Faldo overcame a six-shot deficit to beat Greg Norman in 1996.
This is also Schwartzel’s first Major title and he became the third South African to don the green jacket following Gary Player and Trevor Immelman.
McIlroy displayed a stunning round of golf at the Masters but a triple bogey on the final round forced the 21-year-old to give up his three-day lead.
The 50th edition of the Maybank Malaysian Open will see a dazzling display of golf as Malaysian professionals compete with some of the world’s best players for the USD 2.5 million purse.
