This week marks the start of the season on the Asian Tour. The IRS Prima Malaysian Open will kick off with the presence of two Spanish golfers: Carlos Pigem, who once again won the card through the school in January, and David Puig, who has full category after the results he achieved last year and who is still determined to grow in the world ranking and qualify for the Majors while competing in LIV Golf.
Precisely, the possibility of qualifying for a Major is one of the great attractions of this Malaysian Open. Three places are distributed for the next Open Championship at Royal Troon. The three best classified who do not already have an exemption for the British and who have passed the cut will get it. In reality, you have to finish in the top three, as none of the participants in the tournament currently have their presence at the Open assured.
Obviously, the challenge is difficult, finishing in the top three in any tournament in the world is a complicated task, but it can certainly be one of the best opportunities of the year. The data is undeniable. Takumi Kanaya is the best player in the world ranking of the tournament, in 123rd place. Only he is in the top 200 and there are nine golfers in the top 300. You have to play very well, we agree, but the opposition is not as tough as in other weeks. Good opportunity for Pigem and Puig.
In this sense, it is surprising that there are not more LIV Golf golfers in this tournament. We refer to the many who do not have a place in the Open and who would give themselves an opportunity here. In addition to Puig, the only one in Malaysia is Sam Horsfield. The absence of players such as the same Spaniards Sergio García and Eugenio López Chacarra, as well as many others from the middle class of LIV who do not have their access to the Open assured, is strange. Let’s take as examples Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Richard Bland or Lee Westwood, to name just a few British and Europeans who compete in the Saudi league.
It is even more striking when many LIV players have confirmed their presence next week in the International Series of Oman, a tournament that does not qualify for the British, although it has a more important prize pool. We are talking about Carlos Ortiz, Sebastián Muñoz, Branden Grace, Peter Uihlein, Hudson Swafford, Lucas Herbert, Danny Lee, Matthew Wolff, Dean Burmester, Mito Pereira, Abraham Ancer, Charl Schwartzel, Anirban Lahiri, Kieran Vincent, Jinichiro Kozuma, Matt Jones or Chacarra himself. It is true that many of them have signed a contract obligation to play a number of International Series per year, but it does not seem reason enough to not try their luck this week in Malaysia, especially for those who have played few or no Major in their career.
Those who will have the opportunity to get a place for Royal Troon are Puig and Pigem, although for this they will have to go down to the mine, said this almost literally. The course where it is played, the The Mines Resort & Golf Club, is located in the city of The Mines Wellness City, built in the late eighties of the last century on the largest open tin mine on the planet. It was 530 hectares and today it has become a kind of spa city.
Another of the great attractions of the Malaysian Open is that it returns to the calendar after four years of absence. The tournament was first held in 1962, it was part of the European Tour calendar uninterruptedly from 1999 to 2015, it stopped being held for five years, it returned in 2020 and, again, after the outbreak of the pandemic, it disappeared until this week. The last winner was the American Trevor Simsby and in his record are names like Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood, Matteo Manassero, Louis Oosthuizen, Jeff Maggert or Graham Marsh. At The Mines Resort & Golf Club it has only been played once, in 2003, and the winner was Arjun Atwal. In that edition the only Spanish present was Nacho Garrido and he missed the cut.
