MSPGA office bearers promise to safeguard welfare of senior professional golfers

KUALA LUMPUR - Businessman Datuk Arshad Abdul Jalil was elected as the president of the Malaysian Senior Professional Golfers Association (MSPGA) during the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Danau Golf Club in Bangi, near here today.

In the AGM attended by senior professional golfers from all over the country, nominations and election of office bearers for posts of deputy president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and committee members were also held.

In the election for deputy president, Datuk Mohd Sakaruddin Che Mood was elected to the post unopposed while Amir Abdullah and Sankar Raman were elected as vice president 1 and vice president 2, respectively.

The post of secretary was won by S. Selvakumar while the treasurer’s post was won by R. Kalislavan.

The six committee members elected were Sulaiman Radzi, Jamuldin Badol, Karunaneethi, Abdul Rahim, Paramaswaran and Arulnathan.

Meanwhile, in conjunction with the MSPGA AGM, a golf tournament offering RM50,000 prize money will be held at the Danau Golf Club featuring former greats like Baldev Singh, Saad Yusof and S. Selva.

"The priority of the newly elected committee is to organise as many tournaments as possible to provide senior professional golfers a source of income because many of them have devoted their entire life to golf and it was their only source of income.

"Due to lack of tournaments, many are struggling to make ends meet. With the newly elected committee pledging to work hard to bring in sponsors, members can look forward to a positive outlook in the future,” said Arshad.

He added that secretary S. Selvakumar will submit the AGM report and election of office bearers results to the Sports Commissioner’s office soon.

Selvakumar added that apart from organising tournaments, the MSPGA will engage with various stakeholders to increase the number of members who are senior golfers.

"All senior professional golfers are invited to join MSPGA. We need the numbers to attract sponsors to come forward and support our tournaments and programmes,” said Selva.

President: Datuk Arshad Abdul Jalil

Deputy President: Datuk Mohd Sakaruddin Che Mood

Vice President 1: Amir Abdullah

Vice President 2: R. Sankar

Secretary: P. Selvakumar

Treasurer: R. Kalislavan

Committee members: Sulaiman Radzi; Jamuldin Bador; Karunaneethi; Abdul Rahim; Paramaswaran; Arulnathan