Melbourne [Australia], October 27 (ANI): The Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), the Masters Tournament and The RA introduced that the fifteenth Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship can be contested at Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course in Gotemba, Japan, October 3 to October 6, 2024.
The Asia-Pacific Amateur will return to Japan for the second time, 14 years after Hideki Matsuyama gained the second version of the Championship in 2010.
The subject is comprised yearly of the highest male amateurs within the Asia-Pacific area representing the 43 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation affiliated organizations. The champion of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur will obtain an invite to compete within the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and mechanically qualifies for The 153rd Open. The runner(s)-up will achieve a spot in Final Qualifying for The Open.
“Returning to Japan for the 15th edition of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship brings the Championship full circle,” mentioned Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, on behalf of the Founding Partners. “The Asia-Pacific Amateur has an extensive history in Japan, starting with Hideki Matsuyama’s victory more than a decade ago, and we are committed to building on that legacy in 2024 at a world-class venue in Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course.”Notable previous rivals embrace Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur and the 2021 Masters champion, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith. Collectively, alumni of the Championship have gone on to win 24 tournaments on the PGA Tour thus far and greater than 120 throughout the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
“We are excited to welcome the best players from across the Asia-Pacific region to Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course in 2024,” mentioned Shun Han, President of Taiheiyo Club. “The Gotemba Course is one of the world’s top courses and we look forward to the test it will provide to some of the most talented golfers in the world.”Designed in 1977 by Shunsuke Kato, Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course underwent a renovation in 2018 overseen by Rees Jones with session from Matsuyama. The hillside course, located 100 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, options views of Mount Fuji.
The flagship of Taiheiyo Club’s 18 golf programs, the Gotemba Course has hosted numerous worldwide occasions, together with the Taiheiyo Masters and the 2001 World Cup of Golf gained by South Africa’s Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
“It will be an honour to welcome this elite Championship back to Japan after hosting the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in 2010,” mentioned Executive Director Andy Yamanaka of the Japan Golf Association. “We are prepared to showcase Japanese golf at the highest levels and build on the success that past champions such as Hideki Matsuyama, Takumi Kanaya and Keita Nakajima have had at this Championship.”The Asia-Pacific Amateur has served as a springboard to a few of the world’s prime gamers since its inception in 2009, together with Australia’s Cameron Davis, Lucas Herbert, Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith, Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan, the Republic of Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Japan’s Takumi Kanaya, Satoshi Kodaira, Hideki Matsuyama and Keita Nakajima and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox. (ANI)