Close finish in Hanoi
Yap Chee Siong was brimming with confidence when he handed in his scorecard after the second round of the Maxis Team Golf Tour grand final in Chi Linh Star Golf Club in Hanoi last week.
He had just shot a 72 gross that put him firmly ahead of the field of 48 finalists in the race for the individual gross title. But little did his realise then, that his team who were lying third overnight after the opening round at Van Tri Golf Club, would go on to win the team title and the coveted Maxis challenge crystal trophy.
“I’m so happy to have played a part in my team’s success,” said Yap while being congratulated by his team-mates Wong Yong Siang and Lee Kong Sun.
Willsher, handing over the trophy to Yap, Wong and Lee at the grand final.
It was a close finish to an exciting season of the eighth Maxis Team Golf Tour. The top two teams notched 223 stableford points while the team who finished third, was only one point further back.
Yap and company boasted a lower combined handicap of 36 compared to the 37 of Cham Eu Leng, Pang Zip Yiap and Ng Cheng Weng and in accordance with Maxis Unique Rules, countback starts with the team with the lower combined handicap.
Apart from being presented with the traditional Vietnamese cone hats, the champions won a set of Nike irons each. Sixteen teams made it to the Maxis Team Golf Tour grand final in Hanoi after qualifying from 12 rounds that began in Kota Permai in March and ended in Sutera Harbour in August.
Hamdan Zambahari was the happiest individual of the field after being declared gross champion. He carded rounds of 77 and 78 which for a 155 total was four strokes more than Yap. But as the latter won the team title, it enabled the next best gross achiever to be declared individual champion.
Finishing third in the team event were the trio of Lim Chee Khoon, Foong Kam Kwong and Wee Hen Cheng. They won Nokia mobile phones.
The 48 finalists had the time of their lives in Hanoi. Treated as VIPs all the way, there was seamless check-ins at the hotel, golf clubs and even at the airports.
Matthew Willsher, Chief Marketing Officer of Maxis gave away the main prizes. He commented on the growth of the tournament, noting that 70% of the participants in Hanoi were first-timers in a Maxis final. Overall, he said that there was a 30 percent increase in participation this year.
Sponsors of the Maxis Team Golf Tour include Huawei, Nokia-Siemens, ZTE, Acision, Hewlett Packard and Patimas.
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