Former amateur standout struggles

He is the only player to have topped the annual Asian Tour’s Qualifying School twice (2006 and 2007) but Ben Leong’s transition from a top-notch golfer in the amateurs to the pro ranks hasn’t been as smooth and easy as he had hoped for.

“I’m playing well but couldn’t score the way I wanted to,” said Leong, who has dominated the amateur ranks in Malaysia for years before finishing a four-year scholarship at the Leadbetter Academy in Florida.

He highlighted his checkered amateur career with triumphs in the Putra Cup in 2003 and 2005 and a stint in the US Amateur Championship, becoming the first Malaysian to play in the prestigious US tilt twice (2005 and 2006). But the 22-year-old shotmaker has struggled in big-time golf, his 15th place finish in the inaugural Pine Valley Beijing Open last year proving to be his best thus far.

But the Philippine Open, reeling off today at Wack Wack’s east course, poses a different kind of challenge for Leong, bunched in the group of Tony Lascuna and Australian Unho Park in the 11:55 a.m. flight on No. 1.

“I haven’t played this course since I was a kid but let’s see,” said Leong, who with Malaysia’s top player Danny Chia, head the seven-man Malaysian contingent trying to score a breakthrough victory in Asia’s oldest golf championship.     – Dante Navarro