Hungry Hiroyoshi's Appetite Whetted by Cup Success

Bogor, Indonesia: With a healthy appetite for success, Yurina Hiroyoshi can be assured of a warm welcome and bountiful dining invitations whenever she returns to Indonesia.

Having displayed her class on the course with an accomplished closing 66 to set up Japan for a famous victory at the 46th Queen Sirikit Cup on Friday, the 16-year-old then brought the house down with her heart-warming words during the prize presentation ceremony.

“I’m very happy we could win this team tournament. Winning was not easy but thanks to the support of the whole team we have become champions,” said Hiroyoshi, before lightening the mood.

“The Nasi Goreng was very delicious! I would like to play in Indonesia again,” added Hiroyoshi, loud applause breaking out as she put down the microphone and returned to her place alongside her 17-year-old team-mates Ai Goto and Anna Iwanaga.

Hiroyoshi’s reference to one of the national dishes of Indonesia not only endeared her to the audience, but also whetted the appetite as to what lies ahead for this hugely gifted golfer.

Last year, while still aged 15, she posted four top-15 finishes on the Japan LPGA Tour, including a third-place finish in the Japan Women’s Open. She also won the Japan Girls’ Junior High School Spring Championship and finished inside the top-20 in both the Japan Women’s Amateur and Canadian Women’s Amateur.

Her good form has continued into 2026. In February, she was sixth at the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship and fifth in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) in New Zealand. At the start of April, she made the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, ending joint 27th. She arrived at Sentul Highlands Golf Club in 16th place in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), the top-rated player in the field.

Hiroyoshi had a slow start to the tournament, her opening scores of 73 and 70 not being required in the event in which only the best two daily scores in each three-player team are counted. But she sparked to life with a best-of-the-day 68 in round three and then anchored Japan’s final-day charge, laying the foundation for Goto, playing in the last flight, to deliver the coup de grace.

All three Japanese players were outstanding, reflected by their individual aggregate scores – Goto (274), Iwanaga (276) and Hiroyoshi (277). It all added up to a team tally of 33-under-par 543, bettering the lowest winning score by one (set by Korea last year) since the Cup extended from three rounds to four in 2022.

Saori Iwamoto, Japan’s coach and captain, said: “Our girls worked hard and prepared really well for the Queen Sirikit Cup. They are all outstanding athletes who were grateful for the chance to play in this historic tournament.”

It was the eighth occasion that Japan has triumphed in the Amateur Ladies Asia-Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championship, but just the third time this century, adding to victories in Malaysia in 2002 and Singapore in 2022.

Given that Hiroyoshi and Iwanaga (20th in the WAGR) were the top-ranked players in the field and that Goto was 65th in the standings, a Japanese triumph cannot be considered a shock. Yet overcoming a powerful Korean line-up comprising three WAGR top-50 players – Park Seo-jin (24th), WAAP champion Yang Yun-seo (28th) and Kim Gyu-been (47th) – is a notable feat.

Unsurprisingly, Japanese and Korean players filled six of the top eight spots in the individual standings, the exceptions being Chinese Taipei’s Lin Jie-en (fifth) and Hong Kong, China’s Arianna Lau (equal sixth).

For Korea there was naturally a tinge of disappointment at so narrowly missing out on a fourth successive Queen Sirikit Cup crown and a 16th in the past 18 years. But there was ample cause for satisfaction, not least in Kim’s defeat of Goto on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off to claim individual honours.

Korean team captain Won Ko was typically magnanimous in his assessment. He said: “It was a very interesting and exciting finish. Although we finished second, we did what we had to do and our three players all did their best to set up a great finish. I’m so proud of our girls – I can’t remember the last time the final round of the QSC was so competitive and interesting. Big congratulations to Team Japan.”