2 August 2013 – Now into its 4th year, the Sime Darby LPGA Development programme continues to help nurture the best female golfing talent in Malaysian Ladies golf today. The programme runs from July to September encompassing the regional qualifier for the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia Tournament which will take place October 10th-13th 2013.
Lai Yin Koe, MST Golf Academy Senior Instructor and custodian for the programme since inception commented, “This programme has evolved into the most holistic golf learning program for talented golfers with a specific goal of participating to qualify for the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia 2013. Besides this is also a broader goal to elevate the level of women’s golf in Malaysia, from quality education of the fundamentals to the road map of being a world-class player. Many young graduates from the past 3 years program have been offered scholarships from both local schools as well as international universities while 2 have turned professional”. This year’s participants are from ages 11-22 years.
Based at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club Golf and managed by MST Golf Academy, the Sime Darby LPGA Development Programme offers Malaysian female golfers with a low conforming handicap or showing great potential, to be selected for the program. “All the players are united under the same flag, namely Team Malaysia. This helps in promoting team spirit and support among the players which will help them to improve and grow at a faster pace” explained Lai Yin. “This year, they called themselves LPGA family”! This is a 12-week live-in programme and many are staying away from home for the first time. Besides golf training, they learn to be independent, tolerant and disciplined.
The support of Sime Darby Yayasan continues to make this type of programme possible with the relentless pursuit of sporting excellence. It is also a major bonus for the girls to be able to utilise the extensive practice facilities at KLGCC including course access to the tournament venue site.
According to Director of Instruction Travis Van Dijk, the natural talent that many of these girls possess needs to be nurtured and developed in the coming years to realize the nation’s long-term vision of getting more world-class players onto the international stage. The program is further recognised by the guest attendance of one of the world’s leading Tour player instructors Ian Triggs, mentor to former World Number One, Karrie Webb, and US Open Winners, Eun Hee Ji (2008) and So Yeon Ryu (2011) amongst many others under his supervision.
“I am delighted to be part of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia Development Programme and to offer these promising young golfers training advice to develop them both on and off the course”, said Triggs. “Preparation is an integral part of any athlete’s training program. The players are exposed to specialist advice and training to prepare them for the professional game, and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the development program players over the last 3 years.”
During his next visit, Triggs will be working alongside leading physiotherapist, Ms Jasmine Loke and her team to attend to the players’ physical profiling, exercise prescription and treatment. The training sessions conducted five days a week will see the instructors oversee a variety of specialised classes catered specifically to high-level tournament players.
Utilising a mixture of both on and off the course sessions, the program is aimed at imparting psychological, physiological and technical knowledge of the game to the trainees. Classroom sessions cover topics such as movement preparation, ball flight laws, diet and nutrition, mental game skills, club fitting and gap analysis. The intensive golf practice sessions meanwhile focus on improving the students’ short game, putting, difficult lies and advanced shot-making among others.
Guests Trainers invited to be part of the Coaching Team include experts in Motivation & Peak Performance, Biomechanics, Sports Yoga and Sports Medicine. Two-time Malaysian Open winner Stewart Ginn and our own Malaysian LPGA Professional Lim Siew Ai completes the Coaching Team to impart their wealth of inside the ropes experience with the players.
The Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia 2013 will be an even greater showcase this year, offering better prize money and an increase in the field size and number of playing days. The four-day stroke play event with no cut, ensures that players are in Kuala Lumpur for the entire tournament duration, providing the local and regional golf community an opportunity to catch their favourite golfers in action the entire week.