Timely Morale-Booster for Augusta-Bound Fifa

Daly City, California, United States: Pongsapak ‘Fifa’ Laopakdee has received a timely morale-booster ahead of his much-anticipated Major championship debut.

By dint of winning the 16th edition of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) in Dubai late last year, the Thai received exemptions into next month’s Masters Tournament and The Open Championship in July.

And he will head to Augusta National in early April as the top-rated player from the Asia-Pacific in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), on the brink of breaking into the top-20 in the standings for the first time.

Last week, Fifa led the Arizona State University (ASU) golf team to a commanding victory in The Desimone Invitational. With a three-day total of 13-under-par 203 at Lake Merced Golf Club, he shared individual medallist honours with Switzerland’s Ben Steinmann of Southern Methodist University (SMU).

It was a performance that saw the Thai rise 15 spots to a career-best 21st in the WAGR.

It’s an ideal tonic for Fifa, who is joined by four other Asia-Pacific representatives in the WAGR’s top-50 – Thai Josh Duangmanee (27th), China’s Paul Chang (35th), Australian Harry Takis (38th) and Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Minh (41st).

The ASU junior, who was able to enjoy a couple of practice rounds at Augusta National in late February, is also the reigning individual gold medallist at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, having scored a runaway 11-stroke win in the 2025 event in his home country.

That came less than two months after he’d become the first Thai winner of the AAC. Entering the final round six strokes off the lead at Emirates Golf Club, he closed with birdies on 17 and 18 and then birdied all three play-off holes.

During an illustrious amateur career, Fifa has also represented Thailand in the World Amateur Team Championships for the Eisenhower Trophy and the Junior Presidents Cup.

Two-time AAC winner Hideki Matsuyama, the Masters champion in 2021, is also in the Augusta National starting line-up along with fellow AAC alumni Naoyuki Kataoka, also of Japan, Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee of Australia, New Zealander Ryan Fox and Korean Kim Si-woo.