Defending champion, Thongchai Jaidee is bidding to win the Maybank Malaysian Open for a third consecutive year. Should he make a second successful defence, the Thai golfer would become just the sixth golfer in European Tour history to win the same tournament three straight years. He would follow: Ian Woosnam (1990-92 Monte Carlo Open); Nick Faldo (1991-93 Irish Open); Colin Montgomerie (1998-2000 PGA Championship); Tiger Woods (1999-01 World Golf Championships – NEC Invitational) and Ernie Els (2002-04 Heineken Classic).
After completing a successful defence of his crown in 2005, Jaidee became the seventh player to win the same event for their first two European Tour victories. The others were: Tom Watson (1975 and 77 Open Championship); Greg Norman (1977 and 79 Martini International); Paul Azinger (1990 and 92 BMW International Open); Mark Davis (1991 and 94 Hohe Brücke Open); Phillip Price (1994 and 01 Algarve Open de Portugal Caixa Geral de Depositos) and Trevor Immelman (2003 and 04 South African Airways Open).
His triumph in 2005 saw Jaidee complete a wire-to-wire win, beating India’s Jyoti Randhawa by three shots. It was the third such win in the last four years, following Alastair Forsyth (2002) and Arjun Atwal (2003).
The Maybank Malaysian Open became part of The European Tour International Schedule in 1999 and was the first co-sanctioned event between The European Tour and Asian Tour, played at the Saujana Golf and Country Club, won by American Gerry Norquist.
Since 1999, four of the seven years have been won by players claiming their maiden European Tour International Schedule victory. They are: Norquist (1999), Yeh Wei-Tze (2000), Alastair Forsyth (2002) and Jaidee (2004).
Since 1999 players from six different nations have won the event, United States (Norquist 1999), Taiwan (Yeh Wei-Tze 2000), Fiji (Vijay Singh 2001), Scotland (Forsyth 2002), India (Atwal 2003) and Thailand (Jaidee 2004-05)
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington makes his first appearance on The 2006 European Tour International Schedule since the HSBC Champions tournament. He has played in the event every year since it become part of The European Tour back in 1999. In the seven years he has played in the event, he has twice finished second in 2000 and 2001, losing a play-off to Vijay Singh and been placed in the top ten on four occasions and the top 15 six times. Harrington is a total of 63 under par for his 28 rounds in the Maybank Malaysian Open.
Scotland’s Sam Torrance, winner of the 2005 European Seniors Tour Order of Merit, will be playing in his first European Tour event since the 2005 dunhill links championship. It will be his 696th European Tour event.
