Capelle On Golf

When it’s a non Tiger weekend, it’s time to hit the net. Time to visit far off lands. Like Malaysia, where native son Danny Chia, the #721 ranked player in the world, finds himself tied for the lead after 36 holes of the Maybank Malaysian Open after posting rounds of 65-67.

A ranking in the seven hundreds guarantees a less than impressive resume, but you have no idea until you check it out, which I did. It turns out that Chia has played almost exclusively on the Asian tour the last two years, during which time he has missed 26 of 43 cuts – and never finished better than 14t – prior to a month ago.

Then, out of nowhere, he posted a 5t at Johnnie Walker Cambodian Open, earning a whopping 3.08 WGR points to go with the 1.25 points he’d accumulated in his previous 45 starts. He MC’ed at the Johnnie Walker Cambodian Open, then notched another 5t at the Sail Open two weeks ago in New Delhi, good for another 3.08 WGR points.

I’m guestimating that he was about the 1,250th ranked player before his recent surge. Now he’s #721, and positioned to move several hundred slots higher. I thought Mark Brown’s story was a rags to riches, and it is, but should Chia skyrocket from here, his rise from obscurity could go down as one of the most fascinating tales in golf history. I know I’ll be following his progress over the weekend to see if he comes through with a big career changing W, or if collapses back into the pack whence he came.