Lang Co, Vietnam: Nguyen Tuan Anh stepped up his bid to break into the top-three Vietnamese male amateurs with his thrilling victory in the 16th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final.
Thanks to his success at Laguna Golf Lang Co last week, the 15-year-old has risen 69 spots in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to a career-high 371st.
That places him fourth among Vietnamese in the WAGR standings, behind only Nguyen Anh Minh (60th), Le Khanh Hung (260th) and Ho Anh Huy (313th).
With momentum in his favour, Tuan Anh is now looking to secure a debut in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), to be staged in the United Arab Emirates in October.
He’s also put himself in the frame to earn call-ups for the Vietnam teams that will compete in this year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand and the World Amateur Team Championships for the Eisenhower Trophy in Singapore.
Vietnam's Doan Uy, who finished third in the Boys’ Under-21 category, enjoyed a leap of 51 places to 859th in the WAGR.
Korean Park Jae-min, overall runner-up to Tuan Anh, has progressed 30 places to 402nd, while his compatriot Park Gun-woong soared 212 places 1,837th.
Gun-woong finished runner-up to Jae-min in the Boys’ Under-21 division and joint seventh overall.
Among the females, Yang Hyo-jin makes a one-ranking rise to 59th after edging her compatriot Kim Min-seo at the first hole of a sudden-death play-off to win the Girls’ Under-21 title at Lang Co.
It was Yang’s second victory of the year following January’s triumph in the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs.
The biggest mover of the week was Japan’s Ai Goto. Her come-from-behind victory in the Girls’ Under-16 division has seen her catapult 781 places in the WAGR to 555th.
Another Korean on the rise is Sung Ajin.
Equal 33rd in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in Vietnam in March, Sung fired rounds of 68, 68 and 69 for an 11-under total and a two-shot victory at Phuket’s Blue Canyon Country Club in the ANNIKA Invitational – Asia.
Sung began the tournament as world number 246 but is now ranked 186th.