RI golfers not assured of Chiang Mai showing
JAKARTA (JP): Will Indonesia send golf teams to the Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand?
That will depend on how the men's team comes out of the Putra Cup golf tournament in Kuala Lumpur and how the women's team performs in the Indonesian Women's Amateur Golf Open Championship.
The Putra Cup championship teed off yesterday in the Malaysian capital and will run until Saturday. The women's open tournament is scheduled to begin today at the Pantai Indah Kapuk course and to end on Saturday.
"If both the men's and the women's teams perform poorly in those tournaments, we certainly won't send them to Chiang Mai," Rudy Lisapaly of the Indonesia Golf Association said on Tuesday.
The men's golfers Indonesia has sent to Kuala Lumpur are Sukamdi, Dana Mahmud, and Denny Supriadi.
At last year's Asian Games in Hiroshima, Sukamdi finished 15th after posting a total of 299 (73-77-76-73), Dana finished 29th after carding 309 in total (84-76-75-74) and Denny emerged 28th with 308 (74-77-81-76). As a team, they finished 5th in Asia, with a total of 898, behind Japan, Chinese Taipei, South Korea and India.
As for the women's team, Indonesia is fielding Retno Mustari (handicap 3), Gunaningsih (handicap 4), Ani Iman (handicap 3) and Jamilah (handicap 4) in the Kapuk Indah tournament.
Retno was the champion of last year's Srikandi Cup open tournament.
The four women will face opponents from the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China and New Zealand in the annual open tournament. Australia and Papua New Guinea were reported yesterday to have withdrawn without giving clear reasons. (arf)