Sandwich, Kent, England: Three members of the triumphant Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Bonallack Trophy team will be vying for individual glory at The 130th Amateur Championship this week.
Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Minh, China’s Zhou Zixin and Japan’s Rintaro Nakano all played important roles in the defeat of a powerful European Golf Association line-up in the Ryder Cup-style event in the United Arab Emirates in January.
Five months on, the Asia-Pacific trio will reunite over the famed links at Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports, seeking to gain more success for themselves, their countries and their continent.
The reward for the champion is a start in The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush next month, the US Open in 2026 and, by tradition, an invitation to the Masters Tournament.
The Amateur Championship is one of the biggest and most prestigious championships in the world with the 2025 edition featuring a starting line-up of 288 players from 45 countries including, for the first time, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Romania and Vietnam.
All participants will compete in the stroke play stage on Monday and Tuesday over 36 holes across Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports. From there, 64 players will advance to the match play stage from Wednesday to Saturday. In the event of a tie for 64th place, a play-off will take place to determine the final match play places.
In total there are 17 players from the Asia-Pacific region in the starting line-up – eight Australians, three Indians and one each from China, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Anh Minh is the highest-rated among them at 55th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) followed by his Bonallack Trophy team-mates Zhou (109th) and Nakano (176th).
Zhou and Nakano finished second and third respectively in last year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Japan, where Anh Minh was joint 19th.
Other notable participants from the region include Singaporean Brayden Lee (262nd in the WAGR), Thai Bhumkit Pitchayasaowapak (280th in the WAGR) and Australian Kayun Mudadana (299th in the WAGR).
Lee won the Boys' title at The Royal Junior in Japan in April, while Bhumkit is the reigning Singapore Junior Masters champion.
There are especially high hopes for a strong performance from Mudadana who has enjoyed a fabulous spell in the United Kingdom in the last month, finishing joint seventh in the English Men’s Open Amateur Stroke Play (Brabazon Trophy), third in the Scottish Men’s Amateur Open and 11th in the St Andrews Links Trophy.
The first Amateur Championship was held at Hoylake in 1885 where 44 players from 12 clubs competed. Some of golf’s greatest names have triumphed in the championship, including Bobby Jones, José María Olazábal and Sergio Garcia.
Royal St George’s, founded in 1887, is hosting The Amateur Championship for the 15th time with the most recent occasion occurring in 2017 when Harry Ellis of England defeated Australian Dylan Perry on the 38th hole. Royal Cinque Ports has previously hosted The Amateur on three occasions and most recently in 2013 when another Englishman, Garrick Porteous, triumphed.
The R&A will provide live broadcast coverage of the quarter-finals and semi-finals on Friday and the 36-hole final on Saturday. Live streams are available globally on R&A TV and on The R&A’s YouTube channel.