Jasper Stubbs – photo APAC
MELBOURNE, Australia – Australia’s Jasper Stubbs claimed an impressive come-from-behind victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne today.
The local favorite, who lives two miles from Royal Melbourne, triumphed on the second playoff hole over China’s Wenyi Ding and Sampson Zheng to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur trophy and secure a place in the 2024 Masters Tournament and The 152nd Open at Royal Troon next year.
“It’s really special,” said the champion. “It was actually something my caddie said to me on the walk off the first tee (on Thursday). He said that it would be pretty awesome to have the first shot and the last putt on Sunday. I had to mark that little three‑inch putt so that I could have that last putt. But yeah, it’s awesome. It’s stuff I can only dream of, really. Yeah, I’m really grateful and really happy to be here.”
Stubbs started the day six behind Zheng, the third-round leader, but used his experience in the Sandbelt and dealing with the blustery wind conditions to card a two-under-par round of 69 and finish with a one-over-par total of 285 for the Championship.
The 21-year-old becomes the fourth Australian winner of the Championship and follows in the footsteps of Antonio Murdaca, who won at Royal Melbourne in 2014, as well as Curtis Luck, who won in South Korea in 2016 and Harrison Crowe, who won last year in Thailand.
As a member of Australia’s national team, Stubbs had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot on Thursday in what was his debut appearance in the AAC.
For much of the day Stubbs was under the radar with all eyes on the leader Zheng, who set a new amateur Royal Melbourne Composite Course record with his third-round 65.
The 22-year-old, who was part of the winning Asia-Pacific team in the Bonallack Trophy in August, led by four at the start of the day but endured a nervy start with a double bogey six at the second. In warm but blustery conditions, scoring was difficult for the entire field, but the 22-year-old gained a shot back with a birdie three at the fifth.
Consecutive bogeys at the 11th and 12th reduced his lead over Ding to one but Zheng bounced back with a birdie three at the 13th, a hole he birded in each of the four rounds.
Ding, the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, recovered from a dropped shot at the par-3 third with birdies at the ninth and the 11th but saw a birdie putt slip past the hole on the 15th to keep Zheng stayed two in front.
Zheng’s par putt on the par-4 15th didn’t make the hole so his lead was back to one shot with three holes to play.
At this point Stubbs made his run with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 17th to move to within one shot of Zheng. Stubbs’ 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th came up short and he finished one over par alongside Ding.
In the last group, Zheng’s approach to the 17th found a bunker short and right of the green and his subsequent birdie putt veered away from the hole, leaving him with a four-foot par putt, which he missed, to fall back into a three-way tie for the lead.
On the 18th, Zheng’s approach found a front-right bunker. He splashed out to a few feet and did well to save his par and finish one over par to go into a playoff.
The playoff saw the players go back up the 18th. Stubbs played an approach to the back of the green about 20 feet from the hole and Ding followed him to similar distance on the back right of the green. Zheng’s approach went through the back of the green to leave him with a difficult downhill chip, which he put well past the hole. In a moment of huge drama, Stubbs and Ding both holed their snaking downhill putts for the only birdies on the 18th all day to continue in the playoff with Zheng eliminated.
On the second playoff hole, Stubbs once again found the back of the green and rolled a 60-foot putt down to a few inches from the hole. Ding’s approach found a bunker right of the green and he chipped to 20 feet, but his putt lipped out to leave Stubbs with a tap-in to claim the title.
Chinese Taipei’s Chuan-Tai Lin finished in a tie for fourth with Australia’s Max Charles at two over par. Kazuma Kobori from New Zealand was two shots further back in sixth and Anh Minh Nguyen achieved the best result ever for a Vietnamese player to finish in a tie for seventh with Malaysia’s Marcus Lim.
As well as an invitation to the Masters and an exemption into The Open, Stubbs receives an exemption into The 129th Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin in Ireland in 2024.
“The Masters is something every kid has ever dreamed of,” added Stubbs. “It’s the one tournament that every golfer wants to play in their life and now that that’s going to be a reality for me, I am speechless. It was always a dream, and now that it’s a reality, I don’t know what it’s going to look like. But I’m just really excited for April now, and also for The Open.”
The Asia-Pacific Amateur field consisted of 120 of the top male amateurs from the Asia-Pacific region. The 2023 field features players from 37 nations, all competing to secure an exemption into The Open and an invitation to the Masters Tournament in 2024.
SCORES
PGA Tour of Australasia begins East Coast Swing
Kazuma Kobori exciting addition to the professional ranks – photo APAC
The 2023 / 2024 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia begins its ‘East Coast Swing’ this week when the Queensland PGA Championship gets underway on Thursday at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane’s east.
After events in Papua New Guinea, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, the schedule now includes six consecutive events leading into Xmas on the Eastern Seaboard and the opportunity for several new recruits to the professional ranks to get their careers in the paid ranks underway.
Perhaps the most intriguing of them is the current Australian Amateur Champion Kazuma Kobori of New Zealand who has full status on the Australasian Tour courtesy of his victory at the Tour School in April, following which he has recorded an outstanding final year in amateur golf.
Kobori, already the winner of an Australasian Tour event when successful at the New Zealand PGA Championship as a 17-year-old amateur, won the Western Amateur (Illinois) and was the leading individual at the Eisenhower Trophy in 2023 and appears on track for a very successful career in the professional ranks.
Other leading amateurs making their professional debut this week include the talented New South Welshman Jeffrey Guan, South Australian Jack Buchanan and Victorian Max Charles, all three coming off a week at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne last week, Buchanan and Guan members of the Australian Eisenhower Trophy team which finished runner up in Abu Dhabi last month.
Last season’s PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, David Micheluzzi, gets his new season underway ahead of becoming a full-fledged member of the DP World Tour when that tour begins its new season at the nearby Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in late November.
One of the rewards for Micheluzzi’s outstanding last season is membership of the DP World Tour and although he has played sparingly of late his follow-up to last season will be watched with interest.
Anthony Quayle and Aaron Wilkin have been the winners of this event since its move to the rebuilt Nudgee Golf Club, Quayle though will not be at the event as he chases a strong finish to what has been a solid season in Japan this year.
Last year’s winner Wilkin is having a good season on the Asian Development Tour and is also not in this week’s field.
LEADERBOARD
Jasper Stubbs Australia’s 4th Asia Pacific Amateur Champion
Jasper Stubbs – photo APAC
MELBOURNE, Australia – Australia’s Jasper Stubbs claimed an impressive come-from-behind victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne today.
The local favorite, who lives two miles from Royal Melbourne, triumphed on the second playoff hole over China’s Wenyi Ding and Sampson Zheng to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur trophy and secure a place in the 2024 Masters Tournament and The 152nd Open at Royal Troon next year.
“It’s really special,” said the champion. “It was actually something my caddie said to me on the walk off the first tee (on Thursday). He said that it would be pretty awesome to have the first shot and the last putt on Sunday. I had to mark that little three‑inch putt so that I could have that last putt. But yeah, it’s awesome. It’s stuff I can only dream of, really. Yeah, I’m really grateful and really happy to be here.”
Stubbs started the day six behind Zheng, the third-round leader, but used his experience in the Sandbelt and dealing with the blustery wind conditions to card a two-under-par round of 69 and finish with a one-over-par total of 285 for the Championship.
The 21-year-old becomes the fourth Australian winner of the Championship and follows in the footsteps of Antonio Murdaca, who won at Royal Melbourne in 2014, as well as Curtis Luck, who won in South Korea in 2016 and Harrison Crowe, who won last year in Thailand.
As a member of Australia’s national team, Stubbs had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot on Thursday in what was his debut appearance in the AAC.
For much of the day Stubbs was under the radar with all eyes on the leader Zheng, who set a new amateur Royal Melbourne Composite Course record with his third-round 65.
The 22-year-old, who was part of the winning Asia-Pacific team in the Bonallack Trophy in August, led by four at the start of the day but endured a nervy start with a double bogey six at the second. In warm but blustery conditions, scoring was difficult for the entire field, but the 22-year-old gained a shot back with a birdie three at the fifth.
Consecutive bogeys at the 11th and 12th reduced his lead over Ding to one but Zheng bounced back with a birdie three at the 13th, a hole he birded in each of the four rounds.
Ding, the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, recovered from a dropped shot at the par-3 third with birdies at the ninth and the 11th but saw a birdie putt slip past the hole on the 15th to keep Zheng stayed two in front.
Zheng’s par putt on the par-4 15th didn’t make the hole so his lead was back to one shot with three holes to play.
At this point Stubbs made his run with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 17th to move to within one shot of Zheng. Stubbs’ 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th came up short and he finished one over par alongside Ding.
In the last group, Zheng’s approach to the 17th found a bunker short and right of the green and his subsequent birdie putt veered away from the hole, leaving him with a four-foot par putt, which he missed, to fall back into a three-way tie for the lead.
On the 18th, Zheng’s approach found a front-right bunker. He splashed out to a few feet and did well to save his par and finish one over par to go into a playoff.
The playoff saw the players go back up the 18th. Stubbs played an approach to the back of the green about 20 feet from the hole and Ding followed him to similar distance on the back right of the green. Zheng’s approach went through the back of the green to leave him with a difficult downhill chip, which he put well past the hole. In a moment of huge drama, Stubbs and Ding both holed their snaking downhill putts for the only birdies on the 18th all day to continue in the playoff with Zheng eliminated.
On the second playoff hole, Stubbs once again found the back of the green and rolled a 60-foot putt down to a few inches from the hole. Ding’s approach found a bunker right of the green and he chipped to 20 feet, but his putt lipped out to leave Stubbs with a tap-in to claim the title.
Chinese Taipei’s Chuan-Tai Lin finished in a tie for fourth with Australia’s Max Charles at two over par. Kazuma Kobori from New Zealand was two shots further back in sixth and Anh Minh Nguyen achieved the best result ever for a Vietnamese player to finish in a tie for seventh with Malaysia’s Marcus Lim.
As well as an invitation to the Masters and an exemption into The Open, Stubbs receives an exemption into The 129th Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin in Ireland in 2024.
“The Masters is something every kid has ever dreamed of,” added Stubbs. “It’s the one tournament that every golfer wants to play in their life and now that that’s going to be a reality for me, I am speechless. It was always a dream, and now that it’s a reality, I don’t know what it’s going to look like. But I’m just really excited for April now, and also for The Open.”
The Asia-Pacific Amateur field consisted of 120 of the top male amateurs from the Asia-Pacific region. The 2023 field features players from 37 nations, all competing to secure an exemption into The Open and an invitation to the Masters Tournament in 2024.
SCORES
Australia 6th behind South Korea at Espirito Santo Trophy
The South Koreans winners again – image WATC
Australia has finished in a share of 6th place at the Espirito Santo Trophy at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, unable to capitalise on their fine start to the event earlier in the week when they shared the halfway lead in the 72-hole event.
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard’s final round of 71 was combined with the round of 71 by South Australian Caitlin Peirce for a total of 142 in an event where the leading two scores from the three woman sides are counted each day.
Australia finished seven shots behind the winners, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) who won the trophy for the 5th occasion and for the 4th time in the last seven stagings of the event.
New Zealand finished in a share of 9th place in the teams event but their leading player and the leading world-ranked amateur amongst the six Australasians, Fiona Xu, produced a fine tournament after a slow start to the week when she tied for 4th in the Individual contest.
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard (Australia) finished best of the Australians when she tied for 8th.
TEAM SCORES
INDIVIDUAL SCORES
Daniel Hillier shares lead at Qatar Masters
Daniel Hillier – file photo
New Zealander Daniel Hillier’s outstanding rookie season on the DP World Tour continues this week with a share of the lead midway through the second round of the Qatar Masters in Doha.
Through 11 holes of the darkness-suspended second round of the event at the Doha Golf Club, Hillier has added three birdies to his opening round of 7 under 65 and, at 10 under, he is tied in the lead with South African Thomas Aiken and Spain’s Santiago Tarrio.
Already a winner in his rookie season when successful at the British Masters, Hillier has a makeable birdie putt to take the outright lead when he returns to the 12th hole on Saturday morning after a sandstorm and lightning caused a knock-on effect to the schedule on day two.
Currently 26th in the Race to Dubai rankings, a win by Hillier this week would see the 25-year-old move within striking distance of one of the ten 2024 PGA Tour cards handed out to the leading ten players in the rankings and not otherwise exempt.
Hillier leads the players who graduated from the Challenge Tour and so the two-time New Zealand Amateur Champion and once the Australian Junior Champion is fulfilling the predictions of many who see the Wellingtonian as New Zealand’s next biggest star after Lydia Ko and Ryan Fox.
Jason Scrivener is the best of the Australians, the Perth golfer in a share of 24th after completing a second round of 69 well ahead of darkness causing play to be suspended.
SCORES
Hannah Green chasing West Australian threepeat
Hannah Green in action this week in Malaysia – photo LPGA / Getty Images
West Australian Hannah Green is keeping the hopes of a West Australian threepeat alive when she enters the weekend at the LPGA Tour’s Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.
Green is just two shots off the lead after rounds of 64 and 70 and is in a share of 3rd place behind the leader, Thailand’s Jasmine Suwannapura.
Following the win two weeks ago in Macau by Minwoo Lee and last week’s victory in South Korea by his sister Minjee Lee, West Australian golfing stocks are at a high at present and could well be enhanced by Green winning this week.
Green appeared likely to challenge for the halfway lead today when she birdied the opening two holes of her back nine to move to 10 under but would then drop consecutive shots at the 10th and 12th.
Birdies at her 15th and 17th holes however have her knocking on the door of a possible 4th LPGA Tour title at an event and venue she is playing for the first time given the last time an event was played here was in 2017 and under a different name.
Green has had mixed fortunes in 2023 with one win and two other top tens but that aside there has not been a lot to get excited about although a good finish this week would improve her standing in the Race to the Globe considerably from her current 27th place.
LPGA Tour rookie Grace Kim is not without hopes of contending on Sunday either after rounds of 65 and 72 have her five shots off the lead and tied for 14th.
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko is another two shots back in a share of 24th place.
SCORES
Australia shares Espirito Santo Trophy lead
Justice Bosio – leads the Australians in individual standings – photo WATC
The Australian team of Justice Bosio, Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Caitlin Peirce share the halfway lead with Spain and Thailand at the Espirito Santo Trophy in Abu Dhabi.
Queensland’s Bosio added a second round of 68 to her opening 69 to share 4th place in the individual and just three shots from the lead.
Perth’s Hinson-Tolchard, an attendee the Oklahoma State University in 2023, bounced back from her opening round of 72 with a six-under 66 to be just one behind Bosio while South Australian Caitlin Peirce has yet to have either of her scores counted in a competition where the best two of a country’s three scores count each day.
Hinson Tolchard, the leading world-ranked of the three-woman Australian team enthused about the Abu Dhabi Golf Club’s National Course. “I love this course. I played the Asia-Pacific [Women’s Amateur] here two years ago so I’m pretty familiar with the set-up and how it plays.
“It’s definitely tough with the grain on the greens but it’s fun to play. It can be a challenge, but if you put it in the right spots, you’re going to score well. I think you just have to play smart.”
The individual contest is led by Thailand’s Navaporn Soontreeyaypas, whose second round of 65 was the best of the week to date.
New Zealand’s Fiona Xu also recovered from a slow start on Wednesday with a round of 67 to share 10th place at 3 under and ten shots from the lead.
The New Zealand team of Xu, Vivian Lu and Eunseo Choi improved 13 shots on day two and is tied for 10th place.
TEAM SCORES
INDIVIDUAL
Now its the women’s turn in Abu Dhabi
Maddison Hinson Tolchard heads the Australians – file photo USGA
Following a good performance by Australasian teams and individuals at last week’s World Amateur Teams Championship (The Eisenhower Trophy) the women get their turn in Abu Dhabi this week.
The Australian team of West Australian Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, Queensland’s Justice Bosio and South Australian Caitlin Peirce are joined by the highest ranked of the Australasians, Fiona Xu of New Zealand along with her teammates, Vivian Lu and Eunseo Choi in the event where the leading two scores on each of the four days are counted towards the team total.
Hinson-Tolchard a senior at Oklahoma State has just come off gaining access to the final stage of LPGA Tour qualifying next month, Bosio is a two-time Australian Amateur Championship runner-up and recently won the Keperra Bowl in Brisbane, and Pierce, an agricultural science degree student, won the Karrie Webb Series of events in 2022 and earlier this year won the Queensland Women’s Amateur Championship.
New Zealand’s Xu is the 2022 Australian Women’s Amateur Champion and earlier this year was runner-up in the Queen Sirikit Cup, Lu has been a prolific winner of events in her homeland including the New Zealand Amateur and New Zealand Strokeplay Championship and Choi was runner-up in this year’s Australian Girls Championship and has won many of her country’s leading amateur events for women.
The Australian team last won the event in 2014 when Minjee Lee, Shelley Shin and Su Oh were successful in Japan, the third time the Australians had won.
The New Zealand team has been twice runner-up but has yet to add a victory to that of their 1992 male counterparts.
TEE TIMES
Richard Green’s successful rookie year continues in Virginia
Richard Green – file photo PGA of America
Richard Green might have missed out on a first PGA Tour Champions victory last weekend when beaten at the first extra hole of a playoff with Harrison Frazar, but the 52-year-old Victorian has cemented his standing on the PGA Tour Champions, moving up seven positions to 17th in the Schwab Cup standings and taking his earnings in his rookie season beyond US$1 million.
It was Green’s 5th top ten of his debut season after gaining access to the tour via the demanding qualifying process in December of last year and showing remarkable consistency throughout.
The winner of three European Tour titles in addition to events such as the Mastercard Masters and the Vic Open in his homeland, the elegant leftie began his rookie season well when 3rd in Morocco and has hardly looked back and despite not completing a breakthrough win this week he has the benefit of a successful first season behind him to build on in 2024.
Green was unable to match the birdie of 52-year-old Frazar in the playoff for this week’s event but the US$194,000 will provide some consolation and set him up for the remaining two events of the season.
Following on from Rod Pampling’s win last week and the continuing success of New Zealand’s Steve Alker, Australasian golfers are making their mark on the PGA Tour Champions.
SCORES
Minjee Lee keeps it in the family at BMW Ladies
Minjee Lee – LPGA win # 10 – image Getty / LPGA
Just seven days after her brother Minwoo Lee’s first Asian Tour victory and his third as a professional, Minjee Lee has today won her 10th LPGA Tour title with a playoff victory over American Alison Lee to win the BMW Ladies Championship at Seowon Hills Country Club in South Korea.
The winner birdied the first extra hole after an approach to 6 feet to defeat the classy Lee who was chasing her first LPGA Tour title.
Interestingly, Minjee Lee had defeated the American to win the US Junior Championship in San Francisco eleven years ago.
The two Lees fought it out for much of the 72 holes after they had recorded opening rounds of 63 (Alison) and 64 (Minjee) respectively in round one.
While the pair were the two left standing at the completion of 72 holes, several others had their chance on the final day including New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, who is finding form after a disappointing 2023 to date, and Atthaya Thitikul.
Ko would eventually finish in 3rd place, just her third LPGA Tour top ten of the season.
Alison Lee, playing in the group ahead of Minjee Lee, birdied the final hole from eight feet after also producing a birdie at the 17th to draw level with the Australian, and with the Australian unable to match the American’s final birdie and win, the pair entered a playoff.
Lee earns US$310,000 for her victory taking her LPGA Tour earnings for 2023 beyond the US$1.5 million mark.
For the record, Min Woo Lee stormed home with a final round of 65 in the PGA Tour event in Japan to finish in 6th place.
SCORES
Australia runner-up in Eisenhower Trophy – NZ’s Kobori wins individual
Kazuma Kobori – wins another title in 2023 – photo WATC
The Australian team of Karl Vilips, Jeffrey Guan and Jack Buchanan have shared second place at the World Amateur Teams Championship (Eisenhower Trophy) in Abu Dhabi, finishing the 72 holes eleven shots behind the winners for the 16th occasion, USA.
Australia shared second position with Norway with the New Zealand team of Kazuma Kobori, Sam Jones and Jayden Ford finishing in a share of 5th place with Italy.
South Australian Jack Buchanan birdied four of his final five holes for his round of 68 and along with Vilip’s round of 70 they moved into second place late in the day.
Kobori, the current Australian Amateur Champion, would however win the individual title, his final round of 65 resulting in a one-shot victory over American Nick Dunlap to claim yet another significant milestone in his amateur career.
Kobori, already qualified to play the PGA Tour of Australasia and likely turning professional in the next few weeks, has amongst many other titles, the Australian Amateur Championship, the Western Amateur (USA) and the New Zealand PGA Championship to his name and now this win despite the title not carrying any official recognition.
Kobori will now play the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne later this month and likely turn professional following that event, although, if he was to win the Asia Pacific Amateur, starts at The Masters and The Open Championship beckon provided he remains as an amateur.
This week the women get to play the Espirito Santo Trophy.
TEAM SCORES
INDIVIDUAL SCORES