Miyazaki, Japan: Japan has been confirmed as hosts to the 2025 Queen Sirikit Cup. The 45th edition of the 72-hole team event will be staged over the Tom Watson Golf Course at the Phoenix Seagaia Resort from May 13-16 next year.
It will be the first time since 2008 that the Amateur Ladies Asia-Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championship has been held in the Land of the Rising Sun.
At the Sodegaura Country Club 16 years ago, the Japanese trio of Asako Fujimoto, Mika Miyazato and Rikako Morita finished runners-up to Korea.
Japan also finished runners-up on the only two other occasions it’s hosted the Queen Sirikit Cup – in 1981 at the Central Golf Club in Narita, and in 1995 at the Narashino Country Club.
In last week’s 44th iteration of the championship at Clearwater Golf Club in New Zealand, Japan once more had to settle for second place, seven strokes adrift of Korea.
Rated among the top-100 courses in world and one of the top-three courses in Japan, the Phoenix Country Club is located within the Phoenix Seagaia Resort, on the Hitotsuba Pacific Coast.
It has been the site of the Japan Golf Tour’s Dunlop Phoenix Tournament since 1974. Among the famous winners have been Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka.
Surrounded by black pine groves, the Watson-designed course is characterised by narrow fairways with subtly-placed bunkers, requiring accurate tee shots and iron approaches.
Miyazaki Prefecture is located in the eastern part of Japan’s Kyushu region. Blessed with a warm climate and rich natural surroundings, it features beautiful coastlines, abundant greenery, and the mystical Kirishima mountain range.
Inaugurated in 1979, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand graciously granted permission to have the trophy named after her as the ‘Queen Sirikit Cup’, a handcrafted silver trophy, an exact replica of which is presented to the champion team each year.
The event is made up of teams of three players with the best two daily scores being counted.
Over the past five decades, the Queen Sirikit Cup has acted as an important stepping stone to global fairway fame for dozens of players including Australians Karrie Webb and Minjee Lee, China’s Feng Shanshan, Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Ya-ni, Japan’s Ai Miyazato and Yuka Saso, Koreans Pak Se-ri and Shin Ji-yae, Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul and New Zealander Lydia Ko.
