Ilonen wins the Bursa Malaysia Swing Grand Final

Finland’s Mikko Ilonen enjoyed a Bank Holiday Monday to remember when he emerged triumphant in the inaugural Bursa Malaysia Swing 06/07 Grand Final at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.

The 27 year old, winner of the Enjoy Jakarta Astro Indonesian Open, was one of five tournament winners from the 2007 season who booked their place in the Grand Final, which took the form of a seven-element Skill Shot Challenge.

Joining the Finn was Sweden’s Peter Hedblom (Maybank Malaysian Open), Spain’s José Manuel Lara (UBS Hong Kong Open), Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat (TCL Classic) and China’s Liang Wen-chong (Clariden Leu Singapore Masters) who all participated in the skills which were; Longest Drive, Mid Iron, Fairway Bunker, Trouble Shot, Chip Shot, Greenside Bunker and Putting.

The winner of each skill was awarded five points down to one point for the professional who finished last in the section and, at the end of two hours of fascinating competition, it was Ilonen who triumphed with 26 points overall, beating Nirat into second with 22 while Liang took third with 20.5. Hedblom finished fourth with 18.5 while Lara was fifth with 18.

In total Ilonen topped three of the seven categories; hitting a superb Mid Iron to two feet five inches from the pin, firing his Fairway Bunker approach to six feet eight inches from the cup and also finishing closest to the flag from the Trouble Shot, which saw the players have to hook an approach shot round two trees.

As well as a handsome cheque for US$120,000, Ilonen took away the knowledge that a troublesome wrist injury, which manifested itself during the Irish Open, was fully recovered, giving himself the perfect boost for this week’s Celtic Manor Wales Open.

“That was something very different but great fun to play in,” he said. “There were some very difficult shots out there but I enjoyed it very much. It is also a tremendous amount of money to win too so I must pay tribute to the sponsors for their backing of the event.

“It was fantastic for me to win my first Tour event earlier in the season in Indonesia and this is definitely an added bonus.”

Dato Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, CEO of Bursa Malaysia, admitted he had been delighted with the inaugural event. “I am very pleased with the day and it all went very well,” he said. “I think the players enjoyed themselves and that was the whole point as we wanted to do something different.

“At Bursa Malaysia we wanted to increase our profile internationally but did not want to sponsor a normal golf tournament so instead we got involved in an umbrella sponsorship of five Tour events and then came up with the idea of this Grand Final featuring the winners from those tournaments involved in a seven skills challenge.

“We thought it was a perfect idea because all golfers can relate to these seven skills even though most of us do not play them as well as the professionals we saw here today.”

Second placed Chapchai Nirat came top of two of the categories; chip shot and putting, while José Manuel Lara topped the Longest Drive category and the Greenside Bunker category.

Final results:

26 pts:          Mikko Ilonen (Fin)              US$120,000

22 pts:          Chapchai Nirat (Tha)         US$80,000

20.5 pts:       Liang Wen-chong (Chn)     US$50,000

18.5 pts:       Peter Hedblom (Swe)        US$30,000

18 pts:          José Manuel Lara (Esp)     US$20,000