Hong Kong: Agonisingly edged out by World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) number one Keita Nakajima last year, Taichi Kho is fine-tuning his game for another title challenge at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC).

Defeated in a sudden-death play-off by Japan’s Nakajima at Dubai Creek in 2021, Hong Kong’s Kho is hoping an intensive recent schedule will help his cause when he lines up at Amata Spring Country Club for the 13th edition of the AAC in the last week of October.

Kho, who spearheads the Hong Kong challenge at this week’s World Amateur Team Championship for the Eisenhower Trophy in Paris, completed a three-week run on the Asian Tour with an equal 38th place finish in the International Series Korea.

In his previous outings, he tied for 63rd in the International Series Singapore and was joint 11th in the Mandiri Indonesia Open at the start of August, where he shared the first-round lead following a blistering 64.

Prior to that, he comfortably made the cut in the International Series England at Slaley Hall in June, finishing joint 25th.

Kho, who has played his college golf at the University of Notre Dame, said his Asian Tour stint had been an eye-opener.

Following his appearance at Lotte Skyhill Country Club on Jeju Island at the weekend, Kho admitted he’d gained an appreciation for the stresses and strains – physical and psychological – faced by Tour professionals on a weekly basis.

Currently 79th in the WAGR, Kho said: “I naively thought I would know how to handle it with a lot of travel, because in amateur golf you get back-to -back weeks as well. But this was a completely new experience. It was very humbling just to learn how to physically manage yourself and psychologically manage yourself.

“It was a real challenge and I felt like I had to learn it the tough way sometimes. But I wouldn’t change anything about my experience.

“It’s good to know I can compete at this level, and it’s good to know that even without my absolute best, I’m still competitive. But also, there’s a lot of learning.

“I feel like every time I play a practice round with a Tour member, or an actual round, I just learned so much from them to see how they compete. I would say I’m just happy that I learned so much.”