Featured in this Article
The 15th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship crowned its highest-ranked player – Wenyi Ding. The Chinese star shot three-under 67 in each of his four rounds, and made just three bogeys despite the demanding conditions at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba.
There were many things in the Championship to look back fondly on. Here’s our pick…
The grit of Wenyi Ding
The thing that stands out about champion Wenyi Ding – apart from his Ernie Els-like tempo – is his temperament.
It’s easy to forget he is just 19. The maturity is that of a seasoned professional. Nothing seems to befuddle him out on the golf course.
The only time he dropped the calm on his face and reacted to a shot was when he bellowed ‘Come on’. That came on his 268th shot of the championship – after making the winning putt.
His shot-making abilities were imperious but equally impressive was the steely determination not to give them away. After making two bogeys in his first nine holes, Ding dropped just one shot over his next 63 holes, and that too at a wet and demanding Taiheiyo Club Gotemba.
As the highest-ranked player in the field, he was everyone’s target, but his only target was to win the region’s premier Championship following the frustration of losing in the playoff last year in Melbourne.
Mission accomplished.
Japan and its assembly line
With China clinching the top two positions, Japan could view the 15th edition played in their own backyard as a missed opportunity.
However, national coach Gareth Jones and the Japan Golf Association should be proud. Rintaro Nakano finished third at 10-under and Reo Maruo was fourth one shot further behind. Also inside the top 10 were Masato Sumiuchi (T-5), Shoon Kobayashi (seventh) and Shu Fukuzumi (T-8). To have five players in the top 10 is an incredible result for any country, regardless of home advantage or not.
It is also worth mentioning that all 10 Japanese players in the field made the cut, and none of them finished outside T-43.
Over the past few years, Japan has produced two winners of the Championship (Takumi Kanaya in 2018 and Keita Nakajima in 2021), and three No.1 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (Kanaya, Nakajima and Taiga Semikawa).
Safe to say, the assembly line continues to function with famed Japanese efficiency.
The effectiveness of the AAC Academy
In the last five years, the AAC Academy has become a talking point of the Championship, and this year was no different.
Six of the 24 players from this year’s Academy made the cut, and then there were players like Saleh Alkaabi, who benefitted from his exposure to its high-quality training in past years.
The Academy also had a role to play in the fact that this year’s Championship saw players from 20 countries contending during the weekend. That matched the previous record of most number of countries to feature in the last two rounds.
Takes a village to raise a hero
As much as the Championship will be remembered for Ding’s heroics, hats need to be doffed for the maintenance staff for ensuring that the 15th edition was played the full 72 holes.
Given the rain and fog delays on Friday, a reduction to 54 holes was a strong possibility. But even Mother Nature must relent to human will sometimes, and that was the case at Gotemba.
Always a learning experience
Just as it was the wind and firm greens at last year’s AAC at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the participants had to handle copious amounts of rain this year at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba.
Vietnam’s Anh Min Nguyen summed it up perfectly: “It was a whole new experience for me with the delays and the early tee times, to wake up at 4.30 a.m. to play at 6.30 a.m. and finish nine holes and then play another 18. The weather can always be unpredictable. We just have to adapt and learn from it.”
Great battlegrounds produce great heroes
One of the big reasons two of the most talked-about players ahead of the championship – Ding and Nakano – were right up there until the very end and finished inside the top-three, is the golf course.
Taiheiyo Club Gotemba was a tough test and it took players of the ability of Ding and Nakano to handle the challenges. And that’s something that the AAC has always done – find the finest battleground to host the championship.
The scene shifts next year to the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, and it should not be any different for these young stars. Over the years, the honors list at Majlis includes names like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Els, Seve Ballesteros, Bryson DeChambeau and Fred Couples… just to name a few.
By Joy Chakravarty
