KUALA LUMPUR: Galven Green won his maiden professional title in dramatic fashion by birdieing the first playoff hole in the inaugural Alphard Cup at the Kota Seriemas Golf & Country Club yesterday.
Afer three rounds of this penultimate Toyota Tour event, Galven and Paul San finished atop the leaderboard with nine-under 207 aggregates, both players carding four-under 68s.
Two strokes behind in third place was Ervin Chang who could only manage par golf. All three players had chances of winning the tournament in regulation but dropped strokes on the back nine.
Galven was 11-under at one stage until bogeying the 15th and 18th holes. Paul was cruising at 10-under until he bogeyed the 16th.
Ervin also moved up to nine under until bogeys at 17th and 18th stopped his charge.
"I'm quite speechless," exclaimed Galven who turned professional in 2020. "I've come close a few times, so this is amazing. This was my first time playing at Kota Seriemas and winning my first professional event has made it even more satisfying.
"I would like to think I'm finally coming out from my big brother Gavin's shadow," said Galven who credited his parents Gary and Vivienne for their immense support.
Gary has in fact been carrying his bag in most tournaments including regional ADT events.
The Alphard Cup turned out to be truly fascinating as there was not one but two playoffs.
In the Ladies Championship, leading money-earner Aretha Pan and Genevieve Ling finished with four-over 220 aggregates. In the first play-off on the par five 1st hole, Aretha sent her approach to nine feet past the pin.
Genevieve, with a 50-degree wedge, left her approach short and failed to find the cup with her chip. Aretha birdied to bag her third win and another RM10,000. Having lost two previous playoffs at the Corollas Cross Cup and Corolla Cup, Aretha was asking herself "why me" at the teebox.
"I won the first event at the Tun Ahmad Sarji in Saujana in March and as this was the final ladies championship, I wanted it to be a fairy-tale finish."
Aretha said that was when she became really focused to win her third event on the Toyota Tour, which is managed by Professional Golf Malaysia and delivered by MST Golf Group.
Aretha, who also won at the Supra Cup at the Mines Resort Golf Club, will be competing in the China Ladies Tour and also the Thailand and Taiwan qualifying schools, as this would give her more opportunities to start raking up world ranking points.
Meanwhile 14-year-old Andrew Yap finished as Best Amateur when he returned with a four-over 220 aggregate. The Toyota Tour culminates with its finale in the Toyota Tour Championship, which is co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour, at the Saujana GCC from Nov 15-18. The field is expected to be 144 players with half of it comprising international professionals.
Final leading scores:
Men:
207 - Galven Green 68-71-68, Paul San 71-68-68; Galven won on first play-off hole
209 - Ervin Chang 67-70-72 210 - Daeng Abdul Rahman 69-70-71, Khor Kheng Hwai 68-68-74
211 - Syahiran Syakir 72-66-73
212 - Wafyuddin Manaf 72-69-71, Lim Leun Kwang 70-71-71 213 - Shahrifuddin Arifin 71-72-70, Shaifubari Muda 69-72-72, Edven Ying 71-70-72
Ladies:
220 - Aretha Pan 73-74-73, Genevieve Ling 74-72-74, Aretha won on first play-off hole
225 - Jocelyn Chee 75-75-75 226 - Geraldine Wong 70-77-79 228 - Lana Aswadi 75-77-76