Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Alumni in Major Mix

Augusta, Georgia, United States: Three Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) alumni are featuring on the first page of the Masters Tournament leaderboard heading into the weekend.

Australian Cameron Smith, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Chinese Taipei’s CT Pan are all perfectly poised to challenge for victory at Augusta National.

With a 36-hole total of nine-under 135, Smith shares top spot with Americans Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas and Mexican Abraham Ancer.

With three holes of his second round remaining, Matsuyama is among four players at eight-under in joint fifth position.

Meanwhile, Pan is tied for ninth on seven-under. He is five-under through 16 holes of his second round.

While Matsuyama is a two-time AAC winner (2010 and 2011), Smith placed fourth in the 2011 event and Pan was runner-up in 2012. Now they’re all thriving in the world’s elite professional tournaments.

Also set to make the half-way cut in the weather-hit Masters are Thai Jazz Janewattananond (four-under through 33 holes) and Korean Kim Si-woo (two-under through 27 holes). Jazz played in the AAC in 2010 and Kim lined-up in the AAC field in 2011.

But China’s Lin Yuxin will be making an early exit. The sophomore at the University of Southern California, winner of the AAC in 2017 and 2019, is currently in a share of 87th position. Following an opening 79, the 20-year-old left-hander is one-over through 15 holes of his second round, putting him at eight-over for the tournament.

Only the leading 50 players and ties will qualify for the final two rounds. The projected cut is at even-par.

In his ninth Masters appearance, 28-year-old Matsuyama made birdies on the second, 10th, 13th and 15th before the siren sounded at 5.30 pm to signal the suspension of play. The five-time PGA Tour winner finished in the top-10 at Augusta National in 2015 and 2016.

He said: “I’m happy with the way I played today. I played better than I did yesterday, so no complaints. Overall I’m playing good. The course played the same as yesterday. All I can do is go out and play my best.”

A day after turning 29 years old, Pan continued to shine. He opened his second round with five consecutive pars before striking a mighty five-wood approach to within three feet of the flag at the par-five 15th, setting up an eagle. Another birdie followed at the short 16th where his tee shot came to rest to six feet from the cup. Further gains came on the first and second holes before play was halted when he was on the eighth fairway.

Pan said: “Honestly, I didn’t feel comfortable until I made eagle. I started on 10 which is a tough tee shot and I didn’t hit it great. I had 210 yards in and ended up converting a 15-footer for par. That was a big putt as mentally it gave me a lot of confidence.

“I felt like I struggled at the beginning of the round, trying to give myself birdie chances. But it didn’t work out the way I wanted to until the 15th hole when I hit a great second shot for eagle. That was definitely a booster there. I love the way I scored these couple of days.

“Last night, I got back to my stats and saw I hit a lot of greens and gave myself a lot of birdie chances from 20 feet or 15 feet. I felt my game is good.”