Miyazaki, Japan: Mamika Shinchi, Anna Iwanaga and Aira Nagasawa will be aiming to defy history when the 45th edition of the Queen Sirikit Cup tees-off on Tuesday.
Inaugurated in 1979, this is the fourth time that the Asia-Pacific Amateur Ladies Golf Team Championship has been held in Japan.
On all three previous occasions that the event has been staged in the Land of the Rising Sun, the hosts have had to settle for second place.
This week on the Tom Watson Golf Course at the Phoenix Seagaia Resort, Shinchi, Iwanaga and Nagasawa, all of whom are in the top-100 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, are determined to go one better.
On the last occasion the championship was played in Japan in 2008, the home team of Asako Fujimoto, Mika Miyazato and Rikako Morita finished second at Sodegaura Country Club.
Prior to that, Japan also had to settle for runners-up position at Narita’s Central Golf Club in 1981 and at Narashino Country Club in 1995.
Although a victory on home soil has so far proved elusive, Japan has won the Queen Sirikit Cup on seven occasions – 1979, 1980, 1987, 1993, 1997, 2002 and, after a 20-year wait, in 2022 in Singapore.
Over the years the QSC has been a stepping stone for many famous golfing stars, including Australians Karrie Webb, Hannah Green and Minjee Lee, China’s Feng Shanshan, Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Ya-ni, Japan’s Ai Miyazato and Yuka Saso, Koreans Shin Ji-yae and Kim Hyo-joo, Thais Atthaya ‘Jeeno’ Thitikul and Patty Tavatanakit and New Zealander Lydia Ko.
Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), said: “As the region’s ruling golfing organisation, the APGC is proud to see the women’s game growing among many of our 43 member countries. It’s a positive trend which we wish to continue in the years ahead.”
Amin said this year has already proved to be a memorable one for the Asia-Pacific’s elite female golfers.
In January in the United Arab Emirates, a 12-strong APGC team defeated their European Golf Association counterparts in the biennial Patsy Hankins Trophy, a Solheim Cup-style team match play event. Shinchi and Nagasawa are among five members of that team lining up in the Queen Sirikit Cup this week.
Also in the field are a number of players who competed in the seventh edition of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) in Vietnam in early March.
Among them is Oh Soo-min, who won the individual title and led Korea to victory at last year’s QSC in New Zealand, and underlined her potential by finishing runner-up at Hoiana Shores Golf Club.
Amin said: “On behalf of the APGC, I’d like to thank tournament founder Rae-Vadee T. Suwan, The R&A, the Japan Golf Association and staff and management at the Tom Watson Golf Course for their efforts in hosting and supporting the QSC in 2025.
“I’m certain the 45th Queen Sirikit Cup will prove a great occasion and an opportunity for the contestants to renew old acquaintances and make new friends.
“I hope also that the young ladies playing in this event appreciate the opportunity that The R&A and the APGC are providing for them to compete and emerge as future stars on the international stage.”
