World Ranking Reward for APGC Senior Champions

Singapore: On the back of their Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Senior Amateur Championships successes, James Lavender and Sue Wooster have soared in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

Australians Lavender and Wooster triumphed in the individual tournaments at the Vinpearl Golf Nam Hoi An in the penultimate week of November.

As a result of his fifth victory this year, Lavender has risen 30 places to 144th in the latest men’s rankings. That puts him second among all Australians, behind only Karl Vilips.

Wooster, meanwhile, has been elevated 31 spots into 475th in the women’s standings.

“Congratulations to James and Sue. Their performances in Vietnam underline the quality of the leading players from our region. They are also, without doubt, among the finest senior amateur players in the world,” said Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the APGC.

The 62-year-old Lavender has enjoyed an annus mirabalis. As well as winning the APGC title, during 2023 he retained his Australian Senior Amateur title, won the Australian and Victorian Senior Order of Merits as well as the Western Australia and Tasmania Senior Amateurs.

With an appearance at The R&A Senior Amateur now on his itinerary for 2024, Victorian Lavender will aim to further improve his WAGR position next year.

For fellow-Australian Greg Rhodes there was consolation in narrowly missing out on successfully defending the individual title he won at Malaysia’s Kota Permai Golf & Country Club in 2022.

In Vietnam, 64-year-old Rhodes finished one stroke behind Lavender in a share of second place with New Zealander Stuart Duff, himself a former APGC Senior champion.

Despite missing out on retaining his APGC title, Rhodes had the satisfaction of breaking into the top-400 in the WAGR in 398th place.

Runner-up to Japan’s Hiroko Oga in last year’s inaugural APGC Women’s Senior Championship, 61-year-old Wooster went one better this year. She took the lead on day two and was never seriously threatened.