Singapore: Indian Avani Prashanth and Singapore’s Shannon Tan will create history when they become the first players from their respective countries to represent the Asia-Pacific in the Patsy Hankins Trophy.
Prashanth and Tan have been named in non-playing captain Liz McKinnon’s team for the 2023 edition of the Solheim Cup-style match play event that pits the leading female amateurs from the Asia-Pacific against their counterparts from Europe.
Joining them in what is shaping up to be a power-packed line-up that will travel to Spain’s La Manga Club in August are New Zealand’s Fiona Xu and the Korean duo of Kim Min-sol and Park Ye-ji.
“I’m delighted we’re able to call upon so many strong players,” said McKinnon, who expects to confirm the remaining seven members of the team in the coming weeks.
All five of the named players are currently within the top-80 in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
Kim, runner-up at this year’s Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) and a member of the victorious Korean team at the Queen Sirikit Cup, is sixth in the WAGR followed by Xu (17th), Park (32nd), Prashanth (79th) and Tan (80th).
Park’s highlights in 2023 include a tied for third at the WAAP and victory at the Selangor International Junior Championship,
Kiwi Xu has been a model of consistency this year with third place finishes in the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs and the WAAP as well as finishing individual runner-up to Prashanth at the Queen Sirikit Cup.
In addition to becoming the first Indian to win Queen Sirikit Cup individual honours, Prashanth impressed at last week’s Amundi German Masters where she was 39th in the Ladies European Tour event.
Also in good form has been Tan (pictured right), the 19-year-old Texas Tech University under-graduate who finished joint fourth in this year’s NCAA Division 1 regionals in the United States.
At La Manga from August 3-5, the Asia-Pacific team will be bidding to maintain their 100 per cent record in the event, having won in Portugal in 2016 and Qatar in 2018, the last occasion the Patsy Hankins Trophy was staged.
“In both of those matches, the Asia-Pacific won pretty convincingly, which is awesome but maybe puts a little bit of pressure on us to keep that trend going,” said McKinnon, a former Ladies European Tour player who’s been a stalwart at Golf New Zealand for the past 14 years.
Major champions Yuka Saso and Patty Tavatanakit along with Atthaya Thitikul, winner of the inaugural Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific who rose to number one in the Rolex Women’s World Ranking last year, were all part of the 2018 team.
