THE last time Jeremiah Kim Leun Kwang won a professional event was the MNRB Championship at Glenmarie GCC exactly two years ago.
The ladies’ winner was Winnie Ng. Coincidentally, both are leading their categories – the latter by almost a mile – after the first round of the Supra Cup at Palm Resort Golf & Country Club here today.
Kim shot a five-under 67 to hold a one-stroke lead over Edven Ying and a further stroke ahead of veteran Nicholas Fung on the Allamanda course. The 30-year-old was holding at 6-under but suffered his lone bogey of the day at the tricky par 3 8th hole that played to 211 yards today.
Overall, Kim was quite satisfied with his game although he felt he was lucky at times. “I took advantage of the par fives here, getting three birdies. Got some breaks, made a bunch of putts. Nice to be in this position after the first round.”
Ying was also holding at 6-under until a double bogey at the last. Despite finding the fairway off the tee, Ying misread the wind direction and his approach found the greenside bunker on the left. He came out short and then chipped past the pin, finding the cup with two putts.
Fung was three over after four holes but came back strongly with birdies on the 5th, 9th, 12th and four-in-a-row from the 14th hole.
Bunched in joint fourth place at two-under were Paul San, Galven Green, Hui Yong Sherng and Danial Faidz. Hilux Cup champion Nasrullah Zulkifli couldn’t get things going and ended up at three-over after carding four bogeys against a birdie. Danny Chia was joint 16th at oneover 73
The Supra Cup is the sixth leg of the Toyota Tour that is organised by the Professional Golf Malaysia and delivered by MST Golf.
The Ladies Championship may seem like a foregone conclusion after amateur Ng shot a commendable five-under 67 for a wide 7-stroke margin over Michelle Koh and Aretha Pan.
Ng, coming off back-to-back wins in the Malaysian Amateur Open at Templer Park and the RSGC Amateur Open, notched six birdies against a lone bogey.
“My goal was to stay patient, find as many fairways and greens in regulation as possible,” said Ng, 23. “I realised after the two recent victories, that I shouldn’t be thinking of trying to go as low as possible. The birdies will come if I can manage myself around the course, which, I admit is in pretty good condition.”
Despite the huge margin, Ng is keeping her feet firmly on the ground. “There’s 36 more holes to go and I’m going to stick to my game plan. Stay focused, stay patient.”
The Allamanda Course is one of three championship layouts at Palm Resort, the other two being the Cempaka and the Melati. The Ronald Fream-designed Allamanda stretches out to 6,866 yards and boasts numerous water hazards, sand traps and rolling fairways that add to its adventure.
Leading Rd 1 scores
67 Jeremiah Kim Leun Kwang
68 Edven Ying
69 Nicholas Fung
70 Paul San, Danial Faidz, Galven Green, Hui Yong Sherng
71 Ryan Fernandez, Maxwein Chew (am), Daeng Abdul Rahman, Syahiran Syakir, Kenneth
De Silva
72 Ikhmal Basry, Syakir Adli, Jonathan Wong
Ladies
67 Winnie Ng (am)
74 Michelle Koh, Aretha Pan
75 Qistina Balqis, Amalia Shahzan
76 Jocelyn Chee, Geraldine Wong
