Maybank Malaysian Open

February 13th, 2009

Following a week-long hiatus, the European Tour is back in full swing this week at the Maybank Malaysian Open. This week’s venue is Saujana Golf Club located on the outskirts of the bustling city of Kuala Lumpur. Following three events on the desert courses of the Middle-East, the rolling parkland-style layout at Saujana offers a very different test for the players. Alongside the typical hazards of a parkland course, Saujana is also home to a variety of venomous snakes, not to mention monkeys with a penchant for robbery – added incentive to find the fairway if ever it was needed!!!

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Australian Titleist ambassador Scott Strange was in town this week and spent some of his practice time catching up with the Titleist Team. The 2008 Wales Open Champion has had a mixed bag of results this season and was looking to test some new equipment ahead of the Johnnie Walker Classic back in his homeland next week. After some work with the new 909 drivers, Scott took a 909D2 out for the Pro-Am. A combination of more distance and improved consistency saw the driver go straight into the bag for this week’s event.  Unfortunately, Scott missed the cut, but, having hit over 70% of his fairways at an average distance of well over 290yards, he will undoubtedly draw positives from his driver game and look for better results in upcoming events.

Another player touching base with the Titleist team was Englishman Robert Dinwiddie. Robert took advantage of the break last week to visit club technician, Karl Arthur at the Titleist Tour workshop based in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK. Karl spent time checking and fine tuning Robert’s equipment in preparation for the coming stretch of tournaments in Asia and Australasia. In addition to these checks, a new 909F3 fairway was built for Robert with a Fujikura Pro 95 X-Flex shaft following successful testing of the club in recent weeks. Robert was looking for a stronger flight from his fairway and the combination of the deeper face 909F3 head, low loft and heavy weight Fujikura shaft delivered just that.

One of the more amusing moments of the week came courtesy of Titleist ambassador Gregory Bourdy. An emergency call was made to the UK based Tour workshop prior to the team leaving for Kuala Lumpur after the Frenchman somehow bent his AP2 4-Iron. Of course, a new one was assembled and delivered to Gregory prior to the start of this week’s event, but the big question was how the original club came to be damaged. When questioned, Gregory simply smiled and said he had placed the club gently back in his bag but his caddy’s demeanor suggested otherwise. Gregory simply laughed it off, checked the new one and said it was perfect!!!

Young Titleist staffer Chinnarat Phadungsil from Thailand is another player making a change to his equipment. Phadungsil will be a new name to many but, having gained his European Tour card at Q-school in late 2008, is definitely one to watch. Chinnarat is well know on the Asian Tour and became its youngest ever winner in 2005 at just 17 years of age. With the Titleist Team on hand in Malaysia this week Chinnarat took the opportunity to order a new 909F3 fairway (15°, Fujikura Rombax 7Z08 X-Flex) and 909H hybrid (19°, Aldila VS Proto 80 X-Flex) and will be taking these out to test on his return to Bangkok.

Next week the Tour heads down under for the Johnnie Walker Classic at the The Vines Resort & Country Club in Perth. The Vines is widely regarded as one of the finest golf resorts in Australia and will offer both a beautiful setting, as well as a fine test of golf. The event will be a rare opportunity to see charismatic Colombian, and Titleist ball loyalist, Camilo Villegas on the European Tour and he is sure to be among the favourites going into the event. Keep it locked to the Tour Blog for updates from inside the ropes from the event.

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