Lytham St Annes, England: Thailand teenager Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantananuwat will spearhead a 35-strong Asia-Pacific challenge at The 127th Amateur Championship next week.
The 15-year-old prodigy, already a winner on the Asian Tour, is one of the standout players in a strong international field that is gathering at Royal Lytham & St Annes and St Annes Old Links.
The Championship, to be staged from June 13-18, attracted 585 entries with players hailing from 43 different countries. This is an increase of 32 per cent on the previous entries record which was set in 2017 at The 122nd Amateur Championship played at Royal St George’s and Princes.
From the Asia-Pacific there are 35 players representing 12 countries. The biggest contingent comes from Australia with 15, including Australian Amateur Champion Connor McKinney. The Fife-born Australian won the St Andrews Links Trophy last weekend.
As well as four players from India, three each from New Zealand and Singapore, and two each from Japan and Saudi Arabia there are entrants from Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand.
Although World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) number one Keita Nakajima is conspicuous by his absence due to his appearance in the US Open at The Country Club, Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho is in the starting line-up. Kho was defeated by Nakajima in a sudden-death play-off at last year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Dubai.
This year, for the first time, a pre-qualifying competition has been introduced for the Amateur Championship. A maximum of 72 entrants will compete over 18 holes of stroke play at St Annes Old Links today to qualify for a minimum of 10 places into the Championship.
Pre-Qualifying provides a route into the Championship for those players who do not have the pre-requisite WAGR.
The 288-man field will then play 36 holes of stroke play on Monday and Tuesday to determine the top-64 players and ties who make it through to the match play rounds.
The 36-hole Final will be played next Saturday (June 18) with the champion earning a place in The 150th Open at St Andrews next month.
The field will feature three players from the top 10 of the WAGR – number three Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, number eight David Puig of Spain and number nine Ratchanon, who is competing in this week’s LIV Golf Invitational in England.
While the highest-ranked Great Britain and Ireland player is Sam Bairstow of England at number 22, the local favourites in the field will include Royal Lytham & St Annes member Callan Barrow and John Gough, who won the Lytham Trophy last month.
The R&A will provide live broadcast coverage of the quarter-finals and semi-finals on Friday (June 17) and the 36-hole Final on Saturday (June 18). This can be watched on The R&A’s website – www.randa.org – as well as its YouTube channel.
Asia-Pacific Entries (WAGR in brackets)
Australia: Harry Bolton (348); Adam Brady (1180); Jack Buchanan (275); Phoenix Campbell (811); Max Charles (656); Harrision Crowe (30); Tyler Duncan (853); Chris Fan (263); Joshua Greer (242); Hayden Hopewell (54); Andre Lautee (355); Connor McKinney (43); Blaike Perkins (514); Samuel Slater (483); Jasper Stubbs (817)
Hong Kong: Taichi Kho (129)
India: Shaurya Bhattacharya (471); Aryan Roopa Anand (696); Yuvraj Singh (710); Milind Soni (398)
Japan: Yuki Moriyama (316); Masato Sumiuchi (2187)
Korea: Cho Woo-young (326)
Malaysia: Khavish Varadan (199)
New Zealand: Jared Edwards (422); James Hydes (91); Mako Thompson (435)
Pakistan: Omar Khalid (360)
Philippines: Leon D’Souza (513)
Saudi Arabia: Saud Al Sharif (546); Faisal Salhab (127)
Singapore: Ryan Ang (440); Brandon Han (650); James Leow (142)
Thailand: Ratchanon TK Chantananuwat (9)