SHAH ALAM, March 7 — While some parents look to foreign coaches to bring out the best in their children, Hezri Mahmud and Syuhaida Muhamad have decided that locals are good enough to coach their son, Hariz Hezri.
They believed that parents and coaches are just the support system and the rest was up to the players themselves.
“For some parents, they like to send their kids overseas for training but for us, we look for local coaches first because we believe that coaches in Malaysia are also very good,” said Syuhaida.
“It’s how your kids adapt to the system of training, how they learn.”
“It’s up to them actually. It’s up to the player themselves not the parents, not the coach, we’re just helping them.”
Apart from playing alongside professional golfers, his mother Syuhaida said it was the perfect opportunity for Hariz to learn to adapt to the pressure of the tournament.
“Because normally kids like him, they cannot control the pressure, they can play well but their mental can’t take it,” she said.
Besides Hariz, his older sister Maisarah also plays golf and both of them represented Malaysia at the Asian Junior Golf Team Championship in Korea last year.
Hariz made his parents proud just by playing in the Bandar Malaysia Open 2020 (BMO2020) as they never expected their son would get the chance to play in such a prestigious tournament.
“To be honest, it’s actually beyond our expectations for him to play in this kind of tournament.”
“I’ve been a very proud father. Both of us are very proud parents because we never dreamt of it,” Hezri said.
Although Hariz has been focusing on the BMO 2020 lately, his education still remains a priority to his parents.
They have signed him up for home tuition apart from filtering which tournaments he should take part in since Hariz is sitting for his Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (PT3) exam this year.
“We try to minimise his outings. Since last year, we have already filtered and chosen selected tournaments,” he said.
“We also advise him to be a good player, you also have to be a good student, so no matter where you go, you have to bring your books, if you have ample time, just flip through.”
From the 156 players who had joined the BMO2020, only 65 were chosen to move forward to the next round which is happening this weekend.
Malay Mail is the official media partner for BMO2020.
The BMO 2020 is taking place at the Kota Permai Golf and Country Club from March 5 to 8.
