Mardan Mamat finishes tied for the second position at the King’s Cup
Mardan Mamat missed out on a chance of recording his fourth Asian Tour victory, after finishing tied for the second position at the King’s Cup, on Sunday, December 2, 2012.
Mamat entered the final round holding the top spot on the leaderboard. He then got off to a flying start, by carding an eagle on the third hole.
After losing a shot on the fifth hole, the Singaporean parred each of the next four holes to reach the turn in one-under.
Thereafter, he birdied the 10th, 12th and the 15th hole to retain the lead. Entering the 17th hole, he was sharing the lead with Arnond Vongvanij, at a 21-under par overall score.
However, the 45-year-old failed to hold his nerves, and faltered for a bogey, which dragged him down to share of the second position. In the meantime, Vongvanij birdied the 17th hole to stretch his lead to two strokes.
After recording a par putt on the last hole, Mamat left the field in disappointment.
“I played really steady golf today except on the 17th where I had a bad swing. But other than that, it was okay. It was just tough with everyone chasing you down for the lead,” said Mamat.
He also expressed his pleasure in displaying a decent game with his putter, throughout the week.
He said that his short game was the main factor behind his impressive performance in the tournament.
The Singaporean star now plans to keep the momentum going into the remaining two events left on the Asian Tour roster – the Thailand Golf Championship and the Iskandar Johor Open.
“I’m very pleased with the way I putted and that’s the positive that I can take from my performance this week. Hopefully I can carry that over to the last two events,” he said.
Thaworn Wiratchant also seemed to have enjoyed his experience at the Singha Park Khon Kaen Golf Club. He was the other player who shared the second position, which allowed him to move to the top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
Talking to the Asian Tour’s official website, he praised the way Arnond made a strong charge in the final round, to claim the first professional victory of his career.
“Arnond played well today and he deserves to win. He played really good golf and to finish with a 64 is a good effort from a young man like him,” said Wiratchant.
Tags: