WAAP Pathway to Global Fairway Fame
Lytham, England: Eight years after the launch of the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific, the vision of the founding partners is already bearing rich fruit, as emphasised at the 50th edition of the AIG Women’s Open.
Lytham, England: Launched in 2018, the original intention of The R&A and Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) in developing the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) was to unearth emerging talent and provide a pathway for Asia’s elite women amateurs to emerge on the international stage.
Eight years on and the vision of the founding partners is already bearing rich fruit, emphasised this week at the 50th edition of the AIG Women’s Open.
Just consider that the starting line-up at the famed Lancashire links featured no fewer than 17 players who appeared in the WAAP as promising amateurs and have now established themselves in the upper echelons of the women’s professional game.
You can add to that list Yang Yun-seo who decided to delay relinquishing her amateur status after winning the 2026 WAAP in New Zealand in February, because of the opportunity that provided to compete in three LPGA Majors this year.
Among the WAAP alumni showcasing their talent at Royal Lytham were five players who have already snared Major victories – Thai Patty Tavatanakit, Japan’s Ayaka Furue and Australian Grace Kim (one apiece) and Japan’s Yuka Saso and Korean Ryu Hae-ran with two each.
Atthaya ‘Jeeno’ Thitikul may still be waiting to join them but the Thai has the singular distinction of being the first former WAAP participant to reach the summit of the Rolex World Rankings. Currently she’s second in the standings, behind only American Nelly Korda.
Remarkably, all six of those players lined up at the inaugural WAAP at Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club in the penultimate week of February, 2018 when Jeeno emerged triumphant from a four-way play-off that also included Saso.
Also in the field that week and here at Royal Lytham were Australian Robyn Choi, Indian Diksha Dagar, New Zealand’s Amelia Garvey and Singaporean Shannon Tan.
Jeeno (tied fourth) and Ryu and Tan (among those tied for sixth) claimed top-10 finishes with Saso in joint 12th.
To have 10 players from that first edition of the WAAP appearing at the AIG Women’s Open (and other Majors) is testament to the talent coming out of the Asia-Pacific.
It’s also a ringing endorsement of the pathways that are being presented to this generation of young female golfers from the region that their predecessors could only have dreamed of.
