Ervin and Jeneath stand chance to grab podium finish

PETALING JAYA: National golf team manager Teoh Piek Kee believes that golfers Ervin Chang and Jeneath Wong's recent good showings could translate into podium finishes at the SEA Games in Vietnam which starts tomorrow at Heron Lake Golf Course.

Ervin captured the Australian Junior Open in Melbourne while Jeneath secured a top-10 finish at the New South Wales Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event in Sydney recently.

"I believe that both Ervin and Jeneath have good chances to deliver medals for the country. The ladies team consisting of Jeneath, Mirabel Ting and Ng Jing Xuen also have the potential to win medals," said Piek Kee.

Jeneath and Mirabel are both based in Australia.

The others in the men's team besides Ervin are K. Rhaasrikanesh, Marcus Lim and A. Nateeshvar.

"Ervin, Nateeshvar and Jing Xuen have left earlier for Vietnam to train and familiarise themselves with the golf course. Marcus just returned from the United States three days ago and arrived in Hanoi with Mirabel and Rhaasrikanesh yesterday," he said.

"We will have two days of practice before the individual tournament for men and ladies start on May 13."

Ervin had declared his intention of bagging a medal after missing out on podium finishes in the last two editions in 2017 and 2019.

He finished seventh at the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur and just one shy of the podium spot in the 2019 edition in the Philippines in the individual category.

Malaysia returned with a silver medal in 2019 through the women's team of Ashley Lau Jen Wen and Natasha Andrea Oon.

Both Ashley and Natasha could not participate in the biennial Games this time due to their commitments to their respective university teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the US.