(Photo credit score: Paul Childs-Reuters by way of Imagn Images)
Pongsapak ‘Fifa’ Laopakdee turned a six-shot deficit into the largest win of his life, taking pictures a 4-under-par 68 and outlasting 16-year-old Taisei Nagasaki of Japan on the third additional gap to seize the Asia-Pacific Amateur on Sunday in Dubai.
The Arizona State junior turned the primary participant from Thailand to win the championship since its launch in 2010, a victory that features invites to the 2026 Masters and the Open Championship.
Laopakdee’s week-ending sequence was audacious. After Nagasaki’s lead had disappeared by the conclusion of the fifteenth gap, each golfers birdied two of the ultimate three holes to power additional holes. They each birdied the primary two playoff holes as effectively, then took useless goal on the par-5 18th on the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club.
Laopakdee’s 6-iron second barely cleared the water and settled inches past the hazard line on the slope, establishing a routine up-and-down for birdie. It was the fruits of a blistering run with 5 straight birdies in all. Nagasaki needed to accept par on the opening, handing the win to the 20-year-old.
‘It’s unreal. I believe I instructed my (Arizona State) coach Matt Thurmond, ‘I’ll be the primary Thai to win this occasion and be the primary Thai beginner to play within the Masters,” Laopakdee stated. ‘Coach, I did it! It means the world to me.’
Nagasaki, who started the day with a five-shot cushion, missed a 4-foot putt on 18 that may have received him the match in regulation. He 2-over-par 74 for the day.
‘I’m very disillusioned with myself,’ Nagasaki stated by an interpreter, combating again tears. ‘Really struggled to make a rating as we speak. Feel disillusioned.’
Japan’s Rintaro Nakano shot 1-under-par 71 to complete third for the second consecutive 12 months.
–Field Level Media