During the modern era, when intercontinental destinations by air were readily accessible (the Subang International Airport being finally completed in the mid-sixties), a galaxy of stars lit up our course from time to time in various tournaments. The Malaysian Open, in particular, had seen the participation of an array of champions such as Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Bruce Devlin, Tony Jacklin, “Mr. Lu” Liang Huan, Graham Marsh, Isao Aoki to name a few, and later on, the likes of Vijay Singh, Frank Nobilo, Frankie Minoza, Sam Torrance, Michael Campbell and even Jean “Carnoustie” Van de Velde!
Up to 1993, the RSGC was still playing host to a fair share of major tournaments. However, with the mushrooming of other modern, well-designed courses around Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, the Club sadly lost its pride and place as the premier golf course in the country, even though it is undoubtedly still the premier club in all other aspects.
Consequently, it was not until 2002 that the Carlsberg Malaysian Open came “home” (the RSGC having hosted this event for years since its inception in 1962) with a sprinkling of stars, including Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam, and a richest-ever total prize money of US$1,000,000 up for grabs. The winner was a relatively lesser-known Alastair Forsyth.
Since then, the RSGC had been shunned by the sponsors and organisers of major golf events. It became painfully obvious that our course was simply not quite up to standard. Stop the rot we must – and that led to the monumental reconstruction exercise of 2005 as detailed in Chapter 5.
The dawning of a new era came about when Maybank decided to hold the Inaugural Maybank Championship here from 18th to 21st February 2016, and with that the RSGC sky once again lit up with a host of stars, among whom were Major champions Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Darren Clarke and many other high-achievers like Pablo Larrazabal, Tommy Fleetwood, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Matteo Manassero, Thongchai Jaidee, Kiradech Aphibarnrat,
Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paul McGinley, Miguel Angel Jimenez and one Danny Willett who finished inconspicuously in joint 45th position!
Little did he know it then, but that “warm-up” at the RSGC had honed Danny Willett’s skills to such a pitch that he would take Augusta by storm, a month and a half later when he came from 3 shots off the pace set by Jordan Spieth to win the US Masters by 3 strokes with a final day score of 67 to Spieth’s 73! No doubt he must be looking forward to the next Maybank Championship to be held here, enroute hopefully to another Major.
CELEBRATING CELEBRITIES – “TWINKLE, TWINKLE SUPERSTARS”
The RSGC has played host to a galaxy of golfing stars who lit up the various championships over the years. Some did indeed attain celebrity status in later years, such as Arnold Palmer (aged 64), Raymond Floyd (51), Gary Player (58) and Isao Aoki (51). These four golfing legends were invited to participate during the Centenary Year Celebrations in the Benson & Hedges Golden Challenge, where each would team up with 3 selected players among Malaysia’s top amateurs, making up 4 flights of 4 players each. Isao Aoki’s team won with a best -3 aggregate score of 224 from Arnold Palmer’s 227, followed by Raymond Floyd’s 229 and Gary Player’s 230.
Poor Arnie. He knew he had let his team down with his uncharacteristic round of 81, especially in light of his teammates scores of 71, 78, 78. However, he need not have felt bad as they all knew that the 64 year-old warrior had arrived from Los Angeles the day before after an energy-sapping 18-hour flight, and to top it all, had to attend a formal dinner that evening which lasted past midnight. And of course, the jet lag did not help as well.
Anyway, it was a fun event as they entertained the crowd even before the tee-off at the driving range. Aoki and Floyd (though affable, were in nature modest and “well-behaved”), knuckled down to their warming up. Arnie was his natural, amiable self. The ebullient Gary rose to the occasion and had the crowd in stitches with his comical golf swings and witty one-liners following some classic anecdotes.
Excitement, amusement, joie de vivre – they lavishly served it up, as is the propensity and indeed the wont of celebrities, celebrating their celebrated status as it were!
Next up, not another golfing star – but a Hollywood celebrity star! General “Freddy” Hashim Ali had a RSGC CLUBHOUSE CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS TOURNAMENTS / REPORTS / LADY GOLF NEWS P14-52 delightful start in his rookie year as Club President when he entertained comedian extraordinaire Bob Hope with a game of golf. It was late evening then, and “Freddy” offered Bob the Old Course and the choice of the 1st or 2nd nine. “He wanted to know the difference, and I told him the 1st nine is fairly flat and no water. The 2nd nine is almost similar, but there are two ponds and lots of monkeys. His response was “Let’s play the 1st nine. I do not want the monkeys to recognise me!” So the 1st nine it was, and the monkeys missed out on the opportunity to meet the world’s greatest comedian.”
Credit to YK Liew – Excerpt from the book ‘The RSGC: Veritably A Royal Heritage’
