KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) will consider restructuring the development plans for young golf talent to continue producing golfers who can compete at the international level.
Its Minister, Hannah Yeoh said the ministry will look at the justification to provide centralised training centres that can be used by junior and senior golfers to share their experiences.
She said the idea was sparked through a meeting with the six national golfers competing in the ongoing Maybank Championship 2023 - Alyaa Abdulghany, Jeneath Wong, Ashley Lau, Natasha Andrea Oon, Jing Xuen Ng and Kelly Tan - at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC) here today.
“During the conversation with our players, they didn’t ask (anything) for themselves, but they asked to revive the national development camp to help younger girls train together so they have time to mingle and learn.
“We also want to look at how to have closer contact because many golfers are based overseas. We won gold at the SEA Games this year in Cambodia, so we should continue our development,” she told reporters here today.
Meanwhile, Hannah also announced the RM1 million Sports Matching Grant (GPS) for the inaugural edition of the Oct 26-29 Maybank Championship 2023, which is also one of the events under the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour this season.
Hannah hoped that more sports associations would get the benefit next year, when Budget 2024, which has allocated an additional RM50 million in GPS, continues to encourage the organisation of high-performance sports events in the country.
“What we’re hoping to do next year is to look into how we can continue to use matching grants. This year, we were given RM40 million to support events like this and we received 924 applications.
“But next year, once the budget is passed, we will have RM50 million. Hopefully, now all the sports associations understand how these grants work and put in their application early and get sanctions from international bodies early to organise events here,” she said.
The US$3 million (about RM14.34 million) Maybank Championship features 78 golfers, including 10 from Malaysia and ASEAN countries. - Bernama
