European Number One Retief Goosen heads an impressive cast for the Carlsberg Malaysian Open at The Mines Resort and Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur, this week.
The World Number Five, the first non-European golfer to retain the Volvo Order of Merit title, is joined in the tournament jointly sanctioned by The European Tour and the Asian PGA Tour by World Number Nine and the man he beat to the Harry Vardon Trophy last season, Padraig Harrington.
Goosen made an impressive start to his season last week in Australia when he finished joint fourth in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth.
Harrington, currently fourth in the Volvo Order of Merit, will be seeking his second victory of the season having captured the BMW Asian Open in Taiwan, the opening event of The 2003 European Tour International Schedule. He went on to win the Target World Challenge in California after going head-to-head with the World Number One Tiger Woods over the last two rounds.
Harrington returns to action on The European Tour for the first time since his victory in Taiwan and will line-up alongside Ryder Cup team-mates Paul McGinley and Lee Westwood.
McGinley, of course, holed the winning putt in The 34th Ryder Cup Matches at The De Vere Belfry while Westwood, the 2000 European Tour Number One, is a past winner of the Malaysian Open having captured the title in 1997.
Alastair Forsyth will be defending the title following his play-off victory over Stephen Leaney at Royal Selangor Golf Club 12 months ago. Other champions from the 2002 season in action include India's Arjun Atwal (Caltex Singapore Masters), Germany's Tobias Dier (The TNT Open), Denmark's Steen Tinning (Telefonica Open de Madrid) along with Lian-Wei Zhang of China, winner of the Caltex Masters, presented by Carlsberg, Singapore 2003.
