Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Six members of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation’s (APGC) triumphant Bonallack Trophy team will be bidding for individual glory when they return to the UAE for next month’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC).
Invitations to compete in the 16th edition of the AAC were sent last month and 116 players to date have been confirmed for the championship, which will be held at Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis Course from October 23-26.
Among them are New Zealand’s Joshua Bai, China’s Zhou Ziqin, Thai Thanawin Lee, Hong Kong China’s Jeffrey Shen and the Japanese duo of Taishi Moto and Rintaro Nakano, all part of the APGC line-up that defeated a powerful European Golf Association team in January’s Ryder Cup-style Bonallack Trophy in the UAE.
Players from 42 APGC member organisations have accepted invitations to take part in the AAC, the region’s most prestigious amateur championship that rewards its winner with a place in the 2026 Masters Tournament and an exemption into The 154th Open. The runner(s)-up will receive an exemption into The Open Qualifying Series, while the top-three finishers will receive an exemption into The 131st Amateur Championship.
Among the many notable names in the field are Australians Harry Takis and Declan O’Donovan, Kent Hsiao of Chinese Taipei, Indonesian Rayhan Latief, Japan’s Taisei Nagasaki and Thai trio Fifa Laopakdee, Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantananuwat and Chanachon Chokprajakchat.
Also in the starting line-up will be Korean An Seong-hyeon (tied fifth at last year's AAC) and New Zealand’s Cooper Moore (tied eighth last year). An won The R&A Junior Open in 2024 while Moore triumphed in this year’s APGC Junior Boys’ Championship.
Furthermore, there are six players who were part of the International Team at last year’s Junior Presidents Cup: Bai, Latief, Lee, Vietnam’s Le Khanh Hung and China’s Chang Xihuan and Yu Hanjie.
Created in 2009, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship was established by the APGC, The R&A and the Masters Tournament to further develop amateur golf in the Asia-Pacific region.
Representatives from four countries have claimed titles at the AAC, including China with five victories, Australia and Japan with four each and Korea with two.
Notable past competitors include 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the AAC, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith.
Over the AAC’s 15-year history, the championship has served as a springboard for some of the world’s top players, including Matsuyama, 2018 champion Takumi Kanaya and 2021 champion Keita Nakajima of Japan, Smith, Cameron Davis and Min Woo Lee of Australia, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, Korean Kim Si-woo and Chinese Taipei’s CT Pan.
Collectively, alumni of the AAC have gone on to win 33 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 140 events across major professional tours.
As the host nation, the United Arab Emirates are projected to have five representatives in the field led by 17-year-old Abdulla Kalbat and five-time participant Ahmad Skaik.
Designed by Karl Litten and established in 1988 as the first grass course in the Middle East, Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis Course is located south of downtown Dubai and enjoys views of the city’s skyline. It will be the first time the club has staged the AAC and the second time the championship has been held in the UAE following the 2021 event at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club when Nakajima edged Hong Kong China’s Taichi Kho in a play-off.
The Majlis Course annually serves as the host of the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic, an event won by the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Ernie Els, the latter of which owns the course record of 61. Australian Lucas Herbert won the Dubai Desert Classic in 2020 to become the first alum to win the event five years after his final AAC appearance.
*A full list of confirmed players for the AAC can be found here.
