Galven Green achieved his maiden professional win when he birdied the first play-off hole to lift the inaugural Alphard Cup in what turned out to be an exciting and dramatic finish at the Kota Seriemas Golf & Country Club here today.
After 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 today. 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. San was cruising at 10-under until he bogeyed the 16th. Chang also moved up to nine under until bogeys at 17 and 18 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,” he added.
“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 play-offs. 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, Pan sent her approach to nine feet past the pin. Ling, with a 50-degree wedge, left her approach short and failed to find the cup with her chip. Pan birdied to bag her third win and another RM10,000.
Having lost two previous play-offs at the Corollas Cross Cup and Corolla Cup, Pan 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,” she shared.
Pan said that that was when she became really focused, to win the her third event on the Toyota Tour which is managed by the Professional Golf Malaysia and delivered by MST Golf Group.
Pan, who also won at the Supra Cup at the Mines Resort Golf Club, will be competing on the China ladies tour and also try out in 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 November 15-18. The field is expected to be 144 players with half of it comprising international professionals.
Kota Seriemas GCC is part of the 2,400-acre Seriemas township developed by Seriemas Development Sendirian Berhad which is a subsidiary of PNB Development Sdn Bhd.
Final Leading Scores
MEN
207 Galven Green 68-71-68 WON ON FIRST PLAYOFF HOLE , Paul San 71-68-68
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 Wafiyuddin Manaf 72-69-71, Lim Leun Kwang 70-71-71
213 Shahriffuddin Ariffin 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 Pan won on first play-off hole
225 Jocelyn Chee 75-75-75
226 Geraldine Wong 70-77-79
228 Lana Aswadi 75-77-76