Danny Chia, a Malaysian professional golfer born on November 29, 1972, was once the leading amateur back in the mid-1990s and only turned into a professional golfer in 1996. Since then, Danny has been actively participating in tournaments across the region where he has enjoyed success in various countries.
Malaysia’s top golf player
Back in the mid-1990s when he was still an amateur golfer, Danny won Selangor Amateur Open for three consecutive years from 1993 until 1995, a record which has yet to be broken to the present day. Among his top achievement in his sporting career spanning across more than 20 years is winning the 2002 Taiwan Open.
It was one of the very remarkable wins as he was the first Malaysian to win the title. Making Malaysia proud that year, he went on to participate in The Open Championship, a prestigious tournament. Then, Danny was only the second Malaysian golfer who qualified for that event.
The Asian Tour is a very competitive tournament. Besides that, Danny played in a lot of nationwide tournaments where he has won several accolades. He won the EVA Air Open in Singapore in 1996 when he was starting out. That year saw him winning the Jakarta Raya Open as well.
A career of many wins
In 2001, Danny won the Champion of Champions in Singapore while taking home the Sime Darby Masters a year later. In 2003, he took home the Genting Masters, Classic I and II respectively. Other notable wins include the Kinrara Masters in 2004 and the 2008 Mercedes-Benz Masters held in Thailand.
After several years in the circuit, Danny achieved another remarkable feat when he won the Mercuries Taiwan Masters in 2015. This would be his first major international title in 13 years since winning the Taiwan Masters in 2002.
In winning the title, he finished 3-under overall. He led the standings to take home the title over closest contender Liang Wen-Chong of China who had led the third round. This was a comeback of some kind where Danny only returned to competitive golfing a year after recovering from surgery for his left arm which was paralyzed due to a compressed nerve problem.
