Nagoya, Japan: Emma Zheng, Cooper Moore and Robby Turnbull will be aiming to continue their rich vein of form when they represent New Zealand at next month’s Toyota Junior World Cup.
To be played at Chukyo Golf Club’s Ishino Course from June 24-27, New Zealand’s Under-19 Boys team features Moore, Turnbull and Ricky Kang.
Meanwhile, the Under-19 Girls team will see Zheng join with Chloe So and Teresa Wang in pursuit of glory in the event in which the best two daily scores from each team of three will be counted.
Zheng will lead the Girls team as a Golf New Zealand Academy member. Moore and Turnbull, also Academy members, are returning from the 2023 Boys team.
Zheng will be looking to continue her strong start to 2025. As well as emerging victorious at Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club in the women’s New Zealand Stroke Play Championship, she performed well at the Australian Junior Girls Amateur in Brisbane.
Last week, Zheng claimed her fourth win of the year at the Auckland Stroke Play Championship. In so doing, she has progressed 25 places in the World Amateur Golf Ranking to 289th.
Moore will head to Japan as the current New Zealand Men’s Amateur champion, as well as holding the Australian Junior Boys Amateur title after winning a dramatic three-hole play-off at Indooroopilly Golf Club in Brisbane last month.
On his last visit to Japan in October 2024, Moore finished as the leading Kiwi at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Gotemba in a share of eighth place.
Turnbull also will tee it up in Japan with rich form behind him as he recently defended his St Andrews Salver title for the leading men’s amateur at the New Zealand Stroke Play Championship.
Liz McKinnon, Golf New Zealand Talent Development Manager, and Jay Carter, Golf New Zealand Academy coach, will travel to Japan to support the team.
McKinnon, non-playing captain of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation's Patsy Hankins Trophy team in Spain in 2023, said the Toyota Junior World Cup will present a challenge for the New Zealand athletes of not only competing against some of the world’s finest young golfing talent, but a chance to experience the rigours of playing an elite international tournament.
She said: “This event will provide our players with an amazing opportunity to compete against some of the best young players from around the world. The golf course and the different environment that Japan provides will test not only their golf skills but their travel, tournament prep and in-event systems.”
Among those who have competed at the Toyota Junior World Cup are England’s Justin Rose, Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist and 2013 US Open champion, Spaniard Jon Rahm, a two-time Major winner, and Hideki Matsuyama, the first Japanese golfer to win one of golf’s four Major tournaments, the 2021 Masters.
