17-year-old Manaserro of Italy won his 2nd European Tour title since turning pro in the co-sanctioned Malaysian Open that finished Sunday 17th. April. Only one Malaysian survived the par-golf half-way cut despite 20 of them competing on home-ground - Danny Chia. But he finished bottom-of-the-barrel.
Mizi, my nephew, was among the early casualties, despite his parents and siblings, and my personal support for the first two rounds. During lunch in the players' dining I told Ari to get Mizi to see the sports psychologist at UKM or UPM. It's not the technical help that Mizi needs. It's the 5 inches between his ears - his brains.
If you follow golf worldwide on tv, you'll notice the lengthy discussions between player and caddy, and the endless consultations with the yardage books that everyone has. You'll also hear that the caddy surveys the entire course independently, before his master starts the tournament.
What this says is that the mental preparation is left to no chance. What did Mizi do ? I know of no pre-tournament survey. I didn't see any consultation with any notebook. I saw no deliberations before each shot. And I saw no extra examinations of putting greens. The result ? Yes, balls are put on the greens in regulation, just like his playing partners, but they are usually too far from the pins, and too many putts are missed.
Like the one on the 9th. hole on the first day, where a possible birdie became a bogey. Seeing the worldwide attention given to this particular tournament, Malaysia was for four days exposed. The failure of the Malaysian players was also clearly exposed.
In fact the best Asian was the Bangladeshi, Siddikur Rahman, who was followed by a small crowd of his admiring countrymen, obviously Bangladeshi workers here in KL. Siddikur finished 7 strokes behind the winner.
The call by Najib after the prizegiving for MGA to step up the game's promotion was timely. For here is a game that is not restricted by physical size and age, not determined by race or diet, that should find the weather of this country conducive to its development and offer an achievable potential of producing world-class players from among its people, who are sports-loving.
In the meantime, I continue in my search for the perfect swing. And I will not leave it to chance.
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