One final chance for Singapore to play themselves into the golf world cup

By Lorna Campbell

Kuala Lumpur, Saturday, September 20, 2008 – Mardan Mamat and Lam Chih Bing of Singapore are still in with a good chance of a top three place going into the final day of the Fortis International Challenge at Kota Permai, Kuala Lumpur.

Scoring two-under on the front nine with two birdies from Mamat, they picked up four more and a bogey coming home to finish five under for the day and remain tied with Italy in fourth place at 10-under par.

"My partner did all the work out there today. I couldn't make my putts until the last hole. I was struggling out there and he carried me," said Lam after his sole birdie today on the 18th hole.

Faltering with a round of 73 on day 2, the experienced pairing needed a low score to keep them in touch with leading nations Korea and the Philippines.

Mamat said, "Chih Bing had a good putt on the last hole to take us to ten under and this gave him some confidence back for tomorrow. Hopefully things go our way tomorrow and we get into the top three."

The best round of the day came from African nation Uganda with a 63 (32, 31) to move them up into eighth position tied with Myanmar and Pakistan.

Deo Akope said, "We've been struggling a lot on putting but we got it right today. Back home our greens are a bit slow and here they are so fast but today the balls were dropping for us. If we can shoot a minimum of five under tomorrow then anything can happen."

He continued, "If we make it into the World Cup it would be very inspiring for the young people back home and hopefully encourage them to take up the game. Golf is growing in Uganda at the moment but there is nobody on the international scene for them to look up to.

"Fortis as a company and supporter of this event has been really great and has given us a wonderful opportunity. It has been a lot of fun this week. We have been playing with guys we normally watch on TV and rubbing shoulders with them."

Mamat and Lam have a final round of foursomes left where they will need to improve on Friday's form to sneak into the top three places at the Fortis International Challenge.

Looking ahead to tomorrow Mamat said, "We'll play the same strategy as yesterday's foursomes. Fairways and greens are important tomorrow. If we make some putts then I think we will be up there."

Lam echoed his teammate's sentiments saying, "We have so much experience; this is our sixth time partnering each other so we know what we have to do to get the job done. We've both been in this situation before so we hope everything will turn out well tomorrow. Experience will definitely count a lot in tomorrow's format."

The results table has been a scene of constant change since Thursday so any team within the top eight or nine nations could still make a late charge and find themselves heading to China in November for the World Cup. The Philippines have knocked Korea off the top spot for the first time this week after they came out aggressively with a round of 64 under to take them to 15 under; just one shot ahead of Korea.

Lying third after a round of 67 which started with an eagle on the opening hole is the Nigerian team who are vying for a trip to China.

The final round tees off at 8am (Nepal and Brunei). Singapore will go out in the penultimate flight with Nigeria at 9.10am and the Philippines and Korea will bring up the rear at 9.20am.

THE TEAMS
Bangladesh (Md Siddiqur Rahman, Md Jibon Ali), Brunei (Pengiran Hassanal, Faiz Damit) Ghana (Emos Korblah, Victor Bravemensah), Kenya (Dismas Indiza, Anil Shah), Korea (Bae Sang-moon, Kim Hyung-tae), Nigeria (Oyebanji Gboyega, Odoh Andrew Oche), Singapore (Mardan Mamat, Lam Chih Bing), Sri Lanka (Anura Rohana, Lalith Kumara), Pakistan (Muhammad Shabbir, Muhammad Munir), Myanmar (Soe Kyaw Naing, Zaw Zaw Latt), Hong Kong (Derek Fung, David Freeman), Nepal (Deepak Thapa Magar, Deepak Neupane), Italy (Francesco Molinari, Edoardo Molinari), Indonesia (Junaedi Ibrahim, Sarmilih, Malaysia (Iain Steel, Danny Chia), Philippines (Angelo Que, Mars Pucay), Uganda (Deo Akope, Godfrey Mande), Swaziland (Robbie Wesselo, Meshak Zwane).