GolfPlus May 2018 Digital Edition (May 2018) | Page 23

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Johnson Poh of Singapore
SINGAPORE’S POH POWERS TO FIRST WIN
ingapore’s Johnson Poh broke
through on the Asian Development
Tour (ADT) in sensational style
when he romped to a four-shot victory
at the PGM Johor Championship. The
26-year-old dominated the event after
shooting a sensational seven-under-par 65
to defeat Sweden’s Malcolm Kokocinski,
who settled for second following a 67 at the
RM225,000 (approximately US$58,000)
event held at Palm Resort Golf and
Country Club. Ben Leong posted a 70 to
¿ nish as the best Malaysian in third place
while Singapore’s Mardan Mamat rolled
back the years with a superb 70 to end his
campaign in fourth alongside Australia’s
Kieran Pratt (67), Thailand’s Nitithorn
Thippong (67) and Malaysia’s ArieIrawan
(70). Poh, who is coached by his father,
was delighted to clinch his ¿ rst ADT title
in emphatic fashion after shooting his
lowest four-day total of 21-under-par 267.
He started off solidly after mixing his card
with six birdies against two bogeys through
15 holes but produced a grandstand ¿ nish
with three straight birdies to claim a
comfortable victory.
“Feels awesome to ¿ nally win on the
ADT and post my lowest four-round-total
in any tournament that I’ve played. I think
the biggest thing for me this week was that
I stuck to the game plan and stayed calm on
every shot. “My caddy told me on the last
hole, victory is here, and I had to remind
him that we still have one more hole to go
and we need to ¿ nish the last putt before
we can celebrate,” said Poh, who won
silver medals in the individual and team
events in the 2009 and 2015 South East
Asian Games.
The young Singaporean hopes this
victory will help him ¿ nish inside the top-
¿ ve on the ¿ nal 2018 ADT Order of Merit
which comes with a 2019 Asian Tour card.
Despite missing out on the win, Kokocinski
took pride in his ¿ nish this week and hopes
to carry forward his form to his next event
which will be on the ADT in Bangladesh.
“I actually played really well all week
just that Johnson did a little better. I hit all
18 greens today and I only missed four
in total all week. I was reading the lines
wrong today so if I could just get my putts
to drop I could have pushed Johnson further
but I am still happy with my ¿ nish and I
like where my game is right now so I see
good things happening pretty soon,” said
Kokocinski. Asian Tour winner, Leong,
reckons he needs to continue working
on his ball striking as he prepares for the
upcoming Asian Tour events.
“I fought my way around today
because I am not really hitting it very well.
I think I was just lucky today. It wasn’t
easy out there today because it was windier
but I stayed patient and hung in there. My
usual shot shape is left-to-right, and right
now it’s just going straight so I need to ¿ x
that before my next couple of events on the
Asian Tour,” said Leong.
Poh will take home a winner’s prize
cheque of US$10,237 and is the third
Singaporean to win on the ADT after
compatriots Mardan Mamat and Quincy
Quek became winners on the ADT in 2012.
Of¿ cial World Golf Ranking (OWGR)
points are offered on all ADT events with
the winner earning a total of six OWGR
points while the top-six players and ties
earn points on a sliding scale. The leading
¿ ve players on the ADT Order of Merit
at the end of the season will earn playing
rights on the premier Asian Tour for the
2019 season.
GolfPlus
MAY
2018
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