Liyana Durisic on her way to qualification for the Maybank Championship.
IT’S been a week of heartening narratives led by Special Olympians turning out at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, recently turned-pro Liyana Durisic qualifying for a LPGA Tour showdown and Lydia Ko capturing the Women’s British Open to top off a remarkable three-week spin around Europe.
KLGCC was the venue of the announcement this week by Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh that Special Olympic Games athletes will now fall under the auspices of the National Sports Council.
The Special Olympics are for athletes with intellectual disabilities. And with this, they will now enjoy the same footing as athletes at the Summer Olympics, Paralympics and Deaflympics.
The next Special Olympics will be held in Chile in 2027, where golf will feature as one of the sports.
Thus, the announcement at KLGCC proved a timely event. Made more enticing by the presence of players from the domestic professional circuit, the event was dubbed: Toyota Tour Gold for Good.
At the collaboration between Toyota, the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM), MST Golf Group and the Youth and Sports Ministry, Yeoh highlighted the importance of the private sector playing their part in the development of sports across the board, and particularly the Special Olympics.
Pro Daeng Abdul Rahman (left) and Golf Lab South-East Asia coach Ryan Kimber with See Choy Yuen teeing off at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club.
She said: “We welcome the private sector’s help in the development of Special Olympians because they are given the chance to train and play.
“What is needed is accessibility to the sport, and with that, their performances will be enhanced.
“This (Toyota Tour Gold for Good event) is a fine example of how Malaysian corporations can leverage and develop sports and, at the same time, invest in society and nation-building.”
A short novelty engagement between the Special Olympians and Toyota Tour players was one enjoyed by all, as they partook in a game of chipping and putting.
Programmes like these “would not be possible without the private sector weighing in”, Yeoh said.
With their help, “training is provided, and I hope this will continue” with other companies following suit, she added.
Yeoh will also have been heartened by the start Liyana has made to her career as a professional golfer.
Back from her studies in the United States, Liyana qualified alongside compatriot Nur Durriyah Damian for the Maybank Championship on the LPGA Tour, scheduled for KLGCC next month.
The two Malaysians were among the top five who were rewarded for their efforts at the Asean Qualifier at KLGCC this week.
The two-day tournament was won by Indonesia’s Ida Ayu Indira Melati Putri, while Thailand’s Chanyanit Wangmahaporn was the runner-up.
Kristina Natalia Yoko, also of Indonesia, was joint third with Liyana, while Nur Durriyah finished fifth.
Twenty-three-year-old Liyana, a University of Lowa graduate, said she was delighted with her performance and qualification for the LPGA event as a pro.
A debutant as an invited amateur at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia in 2017, Liyana said: “This is a great start for me, especially right after turning professional.
“I’m happy to have qualified and proud of the progress I’ve made since returning from the United States.
“I’m also excited about what lies ahead for me now that I’m a professional.
“I will be competing on the Toyota Tour in a few weeks’ time,” she said.
That event is the Harrier Cup, scheduled for Sept 24 to 26 at Kelab Golf DiRaja Pahang in Pahang.
The tournament carries prize money of RM180,000 for the men and RM30,000 for the women.
As excited as Liyana should be about her exploits at KLGCC and what might lie ahead – and there’s no harm in that – she should also be under no illusion that it will be an easy ride.
Far from it. And if she ever needed someone to look to and try to understand what it may take and, how long and difficult it might be to reach the top, Lydia Ko might be the best example.
The New Zealander has had a whirlwind three weeks, in which she really nailed her legacy as among golf’s greatest women’s players.
At last month’s Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, Ko won the gold medal.
That exquisite and gritty display firmly fixed her in another sphere on her own – accomplishing the full set of medals, with the silver from the Rio 2016 Olympics and the bronze from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Even then, the 27-year-old was not quite done in Paris.
The gold medal secured her place in the LPGA Hall of Fame, becoming the 35th player on the roll call and the youngest inductee yet.
Fast forward three weeks, and the former world No. 1’s triumph in the Women’s British Open at St Andrews’ Old Course was her third career major and her first in some eight years.
She won the 2015 Evian Championship in France and the 2016 ANA Inspiration in the US (now the Chevron Championship).
With her win at the Home of Golf, Ko moved up to third in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings this week.
Previously, she topped the rankings three times, during which she has been No. 1 for a total of 85 weeks.
As a 17-year-old, after turning pro, Ko said that she planned to retire at 30. Well, that topic resurfaced after her heroics at St Andrews.
And in an interview, she said: “I do think it is an aspect that I need to think more about, but I have always felt like I want to leave the game while I still love it and, if possible, when I am still playing well.
“If things are going well, it obviously gives you motivation, and you think it’s always going to be that way, but I know that’s not the case.
“And I have always felt like I want to leave it feeling like, ‘okay, if I stayed on, maybe I could have done more’ rather than thinking ‘oh, I should have left then’.”
There will be many people hoping that Ko does, indeed, stay on longer and add to the joys of following this sport – be it for her sublime game, our Olympians in Chile or Liyana’s path through the professional ranks.
