Queen Sirikit Birthday Celebrations

Bangkok, Thailand: Thailand is today celebrating the 88th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, after whom the Asia-Pacific Amateur Ladies Golf Team Championship was named.

Launched in 1979, the Queen Sirikit Cup is established as the Asia-Pacific region’s premier amateur team championship for females.

“We join the Asia-Pacific golfing ladies in expressing our best wishes to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit on the auspicious occasion of Her 88th birthday,” said Rae-Vadee T. Suwan, Secretary-General of the Queen Sirikit Cup and a Board Member of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation.

For more than four decades, the Queen Sirikit Cup has brought together the finest female amateur golfers from around the region and been a stepping stone to global fairway fame for Australians Karrie Webb and Minjee Lee, China’s Feng Shanshan, Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Ya-ni, Japan’s Ai Miyazato, Koreans Pak Se-ri and Shin Ji-yae and New Zealander Lydia Ko, among others.

The Queen Sirikit Cup’s history is inter-twined with the history of the Thailand Ladies Golf Association which was registered in February 1979, under the chairmanship of Mom Kobkaew Abhakara. Rae-Vadee, one of the association’s founders, came up with the idea to launch a national team championship.

She said: “I felt that lady golfers with great potential but insufficient financial resources could not go very far in their game. It was timely for them to be given a chance to play at a higher level and accomplish more for themselves and their countries. Through the championship, a higher standard of the game was raised and more friendships were formed.”

A proposal was sent to the national golf associations of 14 countries to enter a team of three players to launch the championship in Bangkok. Nine countries participated in the inaugural event, known then as the Amateur Ladies Asian Invitational Golf Team Championship.

Mom Kobkaew Abhakara was instrumental in requesting the challenge trophy from Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, who graciously granted permission to have the trophy named after her as the ‘Queen Sirikit Cup’. The Queen Sirikit Cup is a beautifully handcrafted silver trophy. A replica is presented to the champion team each year.

Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, said: “Events such as the Queen Sirikit Cup and the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific are integral to popularising the sport among women in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The quality and standard of the fields in these events now provide a platform for our young ladies to prepare and seriously compete at world-class venues and international tournaments. These championships are a springboard for some of them to pursue a career as golfing professionals and ambassadors for their country and the region as a whole.

“It was in 2015 that, thanks to the combined effort of former APGC Chairman David Cherry and Rae-Vadee, that the Queen Sirikit Cup came under the umbrella of the APGC. This move has opened doors and given new opportunities to our lady golfers to participate in more international tournaments and achieve higher goals.”