Miyazaki, Japan: Defending individual champion Oh Soo-min leads a star-studded line-up at the 45th Queen Sirikit Cup.
At ninth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), the Korean is the top-rated player in the line-up for the latest instalment of the Amateur Ladies Asia-Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championship from May 13-16 that features 13 nations/territories and 39 players.
Oh is bidding to become just the fifth player to win leading individual honours on two occasions and only the second to win back-to-back after fellow-Korean Park Hyung-kung (2015, 2016).
The three other two-time individual winners are Japan’s Miki Oda (1980, 1982) and Koreans Han Hee-won (1994, 1996) and Kim Hyo-joo (2010, 2012).
Oh will be joined at the Tom Watson Golf Course at the Phoenix Seagaia Resort in Japan by four other players in the WAGR top-50 – fellow-Korean Jung Min-seo (31st), Thai Achiraya Sriwong (38th), Japan’s Mamika Shinchi (43rd) and China’s Xu Ying (48th).
There are a further four players currently in the top-100 – China’s Zhou Shiyuan (52nd), Australian Sarah Hammett (94th) and the Japanese duo of Anna Iwanaga (61st) and Aira Nagasawa (98th).
The elite field contains five members of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation’s (APGC) 12-strong team that defeated the European Golf Association in the Solheim Cup-style Patsy Hankins Trophy in the United Arab Emirates in January.
Joining Japan’s Shinchi and Nagasawa are Korean Jung, China’s Zhou and Hong Kong, China’s Sophie Han (104th in the WAGR).
Joanne McKee, who masterminded that Patsy Hankins Trophy success, will once again be in the spotlight as non-playing captain of the Hong Kong, China team which includes Sabrina Wong, who made history last month by winning the R&A Girls’ Under-16 Amateur Championship and the prize for the championship’s leading player under the age of 14.
Another notable captain is former Major champion Feng Shanshan, who will be hoping to inspire the mainland China team to its first Queen Sirikit Cup victory.
Like Wong, Japan’s Iwanaga and China’s Xu are also on a high after recent triumphs.
Iwanaga, runner-up at last year’s R&A Junior Open in Scotland, has continued her good form into this year with a 33rd place finish at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) in Vietnam in March after which she won the Japan High School Spring Championship and the girls’ category at The Royal Junior.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Xu, China’s top finisher at the WAAP in sixth spot, captured her maiden title against a pro field when completing a wire-to-wire victory at last month’s China LPGA Tour’s ZF.Kove Chongqing Women’s Open.
While Japan, Australia, China and Thailand will all have high hopes of emerging triumphant, Korea will once more be the team to beat.
Last year in Christchurch, New Zealand, Oh, Lee Hyo-song and Kim Shi-hyun repelled strong challenges from Japan and Australia to claim their 23rd Queen Sirikit Cup title. It was their 14th win out of the last 16 championships, having missed out only in 2013 and 2022.
Apart from Korea, only four other countries have won the Queen Sirikit Cup.
Second in the overall standings are Australia with nine victories (1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2013).
They are followed by Japan with seven (1979, 1980, 1987, 1993, 1997, 2002 and, after a 20-year wait, in 2022 in Singapore).
New Zealand, who are not participating this year, are three-time winners (1984, 1990, 1999), while Chinese Taipei has savoured success twice (2005, 2006).
