Over the years, I have been lucky as a golf journalist to cover some of the biggest tournaments in the world multiple times. But here is an honest confession – nothing comes close to the joy that the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) gives me as a storyteller.
That may sound like a big statement, but it really isn’t.
Last week, I was at the 17th edition of the championship at the stunning Te Arai Links course near Auckland. Thailand’s Fifa Laopakdee, following in the footsteps of Japanese superstar Hideki Matsuyama, became only the second player in the history of the tournament to successfully defend his title and won the ultimate prize – invites to the Masters and the Open Championship.
At the heart of any sport is competition. And the AAC always delivers on that front. We have witnessed some incredible drama unfolding each year. When Fifa won last year in Dubai, he came back from six shots behind the leader. This year, he was in contention with at least five players from the host country. No player from New Zealand has ever won the title, so the passion was intense.
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In the end, Fifa played a dream back nine – just as a champion should on Sunday – and beat Zack Swanwick, the second-highest ranked player in the field, by three shots.
Unlike a professional tournament, where finishing second stings but still brings a decent paycheque and plenty of ranking points, only one place really matters at the AAC. If you win, there is that dream trip to Augusta National and the Open. Finish second, and you go home virtually empty-handed.
One champion, many winners
While that is a fact, many in the 120-man field come from countries with little or no golf history. Just to be part of an event like the AAC is a win for them.
One of the players I did a story on this year is Bhutan’s Dechen Lhendup. The 25-year-old said he halted his first practice round on the fifth hole, walked down the beach to the Pacific Ocean behind the green, and touched the brilliant blue water. It was the first time Dechen had been on a beach in his life.
Dechen was so thankful for the opportunity. He missed the cut, but insisted he had picked up several skills during the week that would make him better in the future, including a low cut from Nepalese player Rahul Biswakarma, which helped him tackle the gusting winds on the golf course.
Every participant in the championship has an amazing story. Mongolia’s 30-year-old Solongobat Otgonbataar gave up wrestling and started playing golf at 26. Qatar’s Daniil Sokholov has played in basketball superstar Steph Curry’s Underrated Tour and remembered his motivational talks as he recorded the best finish for his country in the championship.
Gazing the crystal ball
Auckland is technically the first city on Earth that gets to see the sun rise, and where you can see the first stars on the horizon. We may have done that for golf, too, last week.
Fifa, tall and thin like a beanpole, is the one everyone will talk about. For someone built so slight, he is a bomber on the golf course. And just like most Thai players, he has incredible touch on and around the greens. Most importantly, he has shown terrific development in how he thinks on and off the golf course. This is a career worth following.
It was so close and yet so far for Swanwick, but the 20-year-old has shown he is a credit to golf. He has load of game, which was evident from how he came back from being four-over after his first 15 holes in the tournament to snatch the lead after the third round. Even in defeat, which had to be crushing, he still managed to smile and give a warm hug to Fifa, and generally kept his chin up.
But there were others, too. Hong Kong’s Joseph Cao finished tied 35th, but he is just 14 years old and played the tournament with a 14-year-old caddie (a local junior golfer) after his father sprained his ankle a day before coming to Te Arai Links. No one knows Joseph’s game better than his father (yardages, lines, mood on the course, etc.), so to play without him and still become the second youngest to make the cut was a remarkable achievement.
There is something pure about amateur golf. Like Swanwick’s hug for Fifa and Biswakarma teaching a fellow competitor how to hit a low cut, it represents the true spirit of the sport. Most of these players are still untainted by commercialism and sneaky agents dictating what they should, or should not, do.
A final word should be on how well the championship is organised.
The founding partners (Augusta National Golf Club, The R&A and the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation) spare no effort and cost in making it special for all their stakeholders. The amateurs are not used to being treated like superstars, but that is how they feel every year.
And finally, the golf course they choose every year. They have repeatedly proved to be outstanding tests of skill, and Te Arai Links was no different. For those who experienced the Coore and Crenshaw design, it will give them memories for a lifetime.