Kuala Lumpur: Players from the Asian Development Tour (ADT) will resume their title chase when the PGM Terengganu Masters tees off next week.
After a week’s break, the ADT, which is the feeder circuit to the premier Asian Tour, will head back to the East Coast of Malaysia where the RM200,000 (approximately US$65,000) event will be staged at the Awana Kijal Golf Beach and Spa Resort from August 21-24.
Bowen, who currently leads the ADT Order of Merit with his season’s haul of US$30,725, will lead the international field which include Canada’s Lindsay Renolds and England’s Grant Jackson, who are ranked second and fifth on the merit list respectively.
Past ADT winners, Mitsuhiko Hashizume of Japan and James Byrne of Scotland, together with other ADT hopefuls that include Asian Tour regulars Scott Barr of Australia and Singaporean duo Koh Deng-shan and Choo Tze-huang, will also feature among the strong international line-up at the PGM Terengganu Masters, which is the 11th leg on the ADT.
Local hope Iain Steel, who received a timely confidence boost with his maiden ADT victory in Chinese Taipei last weekend, will spearhead the home charge alongside highly-rated Nicholas Fung who earned his career breakthrough on the ADT with his win on home soil in July.
Having bounced back in winning fashion from a back injury, Steel will be hoping to ride on his rich vein of form and break into the top-three on the merit list at the end of the season and secure his full playing rights on the Asian Tour in 2014.
The PGM Terengganu Masters will provide the region’s upstarts with another opportunity to improve their world rankings with all ADT events receive Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points starting this year.
The OWGR will be used to determine the 60-man field at the World Cup of Golf in Australia this November and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Winners on the ADT will receive a minimum of six world ranking points while the top six players and ties will earn points based on a sliding scale.
The ADT was launched in 2010 with five tournaments before growing to eight in 2011 and 13 last year. It has proven to be a successful platform for upcoming players to gain entry into the region’s premier Tour, which is celebrating its milestone 10th season in 2013.
A total of 14 tournaments have been confirmed this season, which is a record for the ADT since its inauguration in 2010.