Photo courtesy Asian Development Tour.

By Kent Gray
Dubai-resident Mathiam Keyser will look to extend his golden purple patch to an incredible four successive wins when he opens the defence of his PGM MNRB Championship title on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) Wednesday.

The 30-year-old South African soared to the summit of the MENA Tour courtesy of back-to-back wins at the Dubai Creek Open and The Golf Citizen Classic (Els Dubai) last month before winging his way to Malaysia to resume his bid for a return to the full Asian Tour. Keyser must finish in the top five of the ADT to achieve that goal and made the perfect start when he captured his second ADT title, the PGM Labuan Championship, last Saturday.

He’s now up to 11th on the ADT order-of-merit and while the $45,000 MNRB Championship will be played on a new course, Damai Golf and Country Club in Sarawak, he obviously takes good vibes from last year, not to mention the last three weeks, into the tournament.

“I am playing good at the moment and so I feel very confident coming into this week,” Keyser told the Asian Development Tour.

“The past three weeks have been amazing with three wins in-a-row. No matter what happens this week, I will have a good time out there.”

The big-hitting Keyser, who trains out of the Butch Harmon School of Golf at The Els Club, Dubai, played the 2014 Asian Tour season after graduating via Q-School. However, he failed to keep his card and is now focused on the ADT even though topping the MENA Tour would have earned three 2018 European Tour starts and an invite to the PGA Tour’s Dean and Deluca Invitational.

He carded rounds of 73-68-71-70  at Labuan International Golf Club for a six-under-par 282 aggregate and a two shot victory over Thailand’s Sorachut Hansapiban last week.

“I came into the week with lots of confidence as I had won two back-to-back events on the Mena Tour in Dubai before coming over. This win has shown me that all the other aspects of my game is good,” Keyser said afterwards. “I’m enjoying my winning run and my golf and that’s what keeping me happy.”

For the record, Keyser has a mountain to climb to equal the longest streak of consecutive wins even if he does beat the odds and triumph again last week. In 1945, the legendary Byron Nelson won an astonishing 11 PGA Tour tournaments on the trot as part of 18 overall in a happy year that coincided with the end of WWII. His 11-straight wins were recorded at the Miami International Four-Ball, Charlotte Open, Greater Greensboro Open, Durham Open, Atlanta Open, Montreal Open, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Victory National Open, PGA Championship, Tam O’Shanter Open and Canadian Open.

In 2006-07, Tiger Woods won seven straight titles including the Open Championship and PGA.