Stunning Sawgrass Success Sees Guan Soar in WAGR

Singapore: Following in the footsteps of Open champion Cameron Smith, Jeffrey Guan has savoured the sweet taste of success at TPC Sawgrass.

Less than six months after Smith triumphed in the PGA Tour’s showpiece Players Championship over the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, fellow-Australian Guan emerged victorious in the Junior Players Championship at the same Florida venue.

Producing inspired golf, Guan returned a final-round eight-under-par 64 to add to earlier scores of 67 and 69. That gave him a 16-under 204 aggregate for a four-stroke victory in the American Junior Golf Association event. He bettered the previous best scoring mark by six strokes.

“It’s really special. This is a PGA Tour course, and I’m pretty proud of myself. I loved it. I wanted to win and I played well,” Guan was quoted as saying by the online paper Jacksonville.com.

Guan, who has been named as an Australian representative at next month’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, snared no fewer than nine birdies against a solitary bogey in his last-day charge. Seven of his birdies came during a nine-hole stretch.

It was Guan’s second Stateside success this year having also won the Adam Scott Invitational in California in February and sets him up perfectly for his debut in this month’s Junior Presidents Cup at the Myers Park Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Thanks to his stunning Sawgrass performance, Guan, a two-time Australian Junior Amateur champion, has risen 29 places in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to 80th.

Another Australian making waves is William Bowen, who turned up for the Queensland Amateur Championship ranked 3,324th on the WAGR table. That status didn’t stop him from running off with the trophy.

Bowen faced fellow Royal Queensland Golf Club member Quinnton Croker in the final. Croker carried a far better ranking at 409th, but Bowen won at the 19th hole to add the trophy to the one he lifted in May when he triumphed in the NT Amateur Championship. Croker’s consolation is a move into the top-400 with a 43-ranking rise to 366th, while Bowen soared 1,472 positions to 1,852nd.

Also making significant gains was Indian Anant Singh Ahlawat who rose 726 places to 2,170th following a play-off victory in the Samarvir Sahi Amateur at Chandigarh Golf Club. Singh Ahlawat defeated compatriot Vinamra Anand after they finished level on five-under 283. Anand’s runner-up finish earned him a spot on the WAGR table at 4,523rd.

Two Japanese players in outstanding form were Taiga Semikawa and Tsubasa Ukita.

With a 16-under 270 total, Semikawa finished second individually in the Eisenhower Trophy for the World Amateur Team Championships in Paris, climbing seven spots to 11th in the WAGR.

Ukita, meanwhile, moved into the top-50 for the first time on the back of his win in the Japan Collegiate Championship. Ukita, who won May's Chugoku Amateur Championship, fired three sub-65 scores to take the title. His 191 total featured a second round 63 along with opening and closing 64s. He became Japan’s best student golfer with a five-shot win, climbing 23 positions to take over 50th spot.

Among the women the Japanese duo of Baba Saki and Miku Ueta improved their standings. US Women’s Amateur champion Saki moved up four places to 17th while Espirito Santo Trophy team-mate Ueta climbed three places to 48th.

With her six-shot victory in the Kakao VX Maekyung Amateur Championship in Korea, Seo Kyo-rim jumped 113 spots to 249th, while Australian Abbie Teasdale is now a top-400 player following victory in the Bowra & O'Dea Womens 72 Hole Classic at Royal Freemantle Golf Club in Western Australia.

Teasdale used local knowledge of her home course to return rounds of 74, 73, 73 and 72 for a 292 tally and a three-shot win. She jumps 85 rankings to 325th.

In Thailand, Achiraya Sriwong won her national title, the Thai Ladies Amateur Open. She is 963 places better off in 1,058th after her 209 total (70, 69 and 70) gave her a three-shot victory.