File photo of 14-year-old Kartik Singh who will be the highest-ranked Indian at this year’s Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Japan. Image courtesy IGU.
By Rahul Banerji
A year after making the cut as the youngest ever at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Melbourne, Kartik Singh will be the highest-ranked Indian at the next edition in Japan.
Now 14, Kartik holds a World Amateur Golf Ranking of 199th , best of the four-member Indian squad to the 15th AAC to be played in October at Gotemba, the Indian Goilf Union has said.
The other three to been invited to the prestigious regional event are Krishnav Nikhil Chopra and Vedant Sirohi, both past participants, and Rakshit Dahiya.
Kartik Singh has also been named to the International team for the 2024 Junior Presidents Cup that will be held in Montreal, Canada, next month, where again he will be the youngest member of the team.
As many as 113 players have been invited to the AAC, which will be held from October 3 to 6 at Taiheiyo Club in Gotemba, Japan. The full field will be 120 with a few more names to be added by the event organisers.
Top finish
India’s best result was by Rayhan Thomas, runner-up at Sentosa in 2018. The Dubai-based Indian Rayhan has since turned professional, and two weeks ago won his first title on the Professional Golf of India Tour.
Krishnav, who plays college golf in America, is the son of former India cricketer turned commentator, Nikhil Chopraa, who often takes on the role of a caddie for his son.
Created in 2009, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship was established by the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), The R&A and the Masters Tournament to further develop amateur golf in the Asia-Pacific region.
The champion will receive an invitation to the 2025 Masters Tournament and The 153rd Open, while the runner(s)-up will gain a place in Final Qualifying for The Open.
The confirmed list which has players from 38 APGC members is highlighted by defending champion Jasper Stubbs of Australia and four players from China inside the top 100 of the WAGR: Wenyi Ding (no. 4), Xihuan Chang (36), Xiangyun Bai (61) and Paul Chang (97).
Ding finished runner-up to Stubbs in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur while Xihuan Chang reached the semi-finals of the US Junior Amateur in July.
Other top-100 participants include Vietnam’s Anh Minh Nguyen (No. 68) and Japan’s Rintaro Nakano (No. 78).
Notable alumni
Notable past competitors include 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith.
Over the event’s 14-year history, it has served as a springboard to players like Matsuyama, Smith, Cameron Davis, Ryan Fox, Si Woo Kim, Satoshi Kodaira, Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Min Woo Lee, Keita Nakajima and C.T. Pan.
Collectively, alumni of the Asia-Pacific Amateur have gone on to win 27 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 130 across the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
As the host nation, Japan will lead the list of APGC member nations and has seen its players win four of the 14 editions of the AAC in Matsuyama (2010, 2011), Takumi Kanaya (2018), and Keita Nakajima (2021).
Also read: Kartik Singh named to Junior Presidents Cup International squad
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