KOTA KEMUNING, March 6 — Several years shy of joining the Senior Tour, veteran professional golfer Danny Chia is now the best-placed Malaysian alongside Ben Leong at the ongoing Bandar Malaysia Open currently taking place at Kota Permai Golf and Country Club.
Chia, who has been playing professionally since 1996, carded an identical 2-under par from yesterday to sit at 4-under for the tournament and nine shots behind leader Andrew Dodt of Australia.
Chia, who teed off at the 10th tee at 8.30am this morning alongside Berry Henson and Yuta Ikeda, had bogeys on holes 3 and 17 and a double-bogey on the 8th. He carded birdies on holes 4, 6, 10, 12, 15 and 18.
“At the eighth hole, I just hit a bad drive into the water. It was just how it is today,” quipped Chia after finishing his round today.
“I can’t complain too much about it. I had two bad drives today. Like I said before, if I can go through four rounds without any pain in my body, I will accept any score.”
Chia has been suffering from a back injury which limits his time in the gym. He, however, has played at Kota Permai for many years and has intimate knowledge of the course.
He told reporters that he is planning to be aggressive tomorrow in order to close in on the leaders.
“I’m happy with where I stand now. I putted well and I hit a lot of good shots, got some unlucky breaks, can’t complain much.
“For the weekend, I’ll go more for pin hunting. The last two days I was a bit too conservative with my iron shots, playing away from the pin quite a few times,” said Chia.
“So, besides those few bad shots, overall I’m still quite happy with the way I played today.”
Meanwhile, Leong had two bogeys on holes 3 and 12 but he hit an eagle on the 7th hole, a Par 5, and added birdies on 14 and 17 for a 2-under par 70.
Sitting behind Chia and Leong on 3-under are Amir Nazrin and Shahrifuddin Ariffin, while Timothy Lo Tien Ming is the best Malaysian amateur at 2-under par.
Play had to be stopped today due to inclement weather. Seventy-seven players have yet to finish Round 2 and play will resume for them tomorrow at 7.40am.