KUALA LUMPUR: Coming off a poor showing at the Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods hopes to turn around his game in Malaysia. He will lead the field at this month's CIMB Classic, a PGA Tour co-sanctioned event, with 38 players now confirmed, organizers said on Monday. The 48-player event, now in its third year, will be played at the Mines Resort & Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur on October 25 – 28 with $6.1 million in prize money available, according to organizers' handout. The event is to become an official PGA Tour stop next year, is to have a massive draw because of Woods, who will compete in Malaysia for the first time since he won the individual and team titles at the 1999 World Cup in the country. The CIMB Classic began two years ago as little more than a limited-field exhibition that featured PGA Tour players and Asian Tour players. It will become a full-fledged PGA Tour event starting in 2013, when the tour begins its new season in October after the FedEx Cup competition. When it becomes part of the 2013-14 tour schedule, the CIMB Classic will have at least a 78-man field and a $7 million purse, organizers said. Fans are already “pumped" to see Woods in action, who has returned to solid form in the past few months and bumped his world ranking back into the top 5 after a long layoff as a result of personal scandals. “I am so excited and pumped to see Woods play," said Selangor resident Thomas Murray, a British expatriate who has lived in Malaysia for nearly a decade. He told Bikyamasr.com that “this will be great for golf and great for Malaysia because this is a country that should be hosting top level events." A year ago, the Malaysian event was largely overlooked the last week in October when IMG put together the Shanghai Masters at Lake Malaren, a 30-man field that featured an All-Star cast that included Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan and Padraig Harrington.
