The field for the 17th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship was announced on Friday with 117 players confirmed thus far to compete at Te Arai Links’ South Course in New Zealand from October 29 – November 1, 2026. A full list of confirmed players can be found here.
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 2027 Masters Tournament and an exemption into The 155th Open at St Andrews; the runner(s)-up will receive an exemption into The Open Qualifying Series; the top-three finishers will receive an exemption into The 132nd Amateur Championship.
Players from 40 APGC member organizations have accepted invitations with 117 players confirmed thus far for the 120-player field. The field is highlighted by eight players inside the top 60 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings: Harry Takis of Australia (No. 17), Zack Swanwick of New Zealand (No. 19), reigning champion Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand (No. 29), Anh Minh Nguyen of Vietnam (No. 30), Josh Duangmanee of Thailand (No. 41), 2024 runner-up Ziqin Zhou of China (No. 46), Taishi Moto of Japan (No. 49) and Jaden Dumdumaya of the Philippines (No. 51). Representatives from five countries have claimed titles at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, including China (five), Australia (four), Japan (four), the Republic of Korea (two) and Thailand (one).
It's amazing what the AAC has provided for me and every Asia-Pacific player. I can't wait to go back to New Zealand to defend my title.
Notable past competitors include 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith and 2026 Open champion Ryan Fox. Over its 16-year history, the Championship has served as a springboard to some of the world’s top players, including Matsuyama, 2018 champion Takumi Kanaya and 2021 champion Keita Nakajima of Japan, Smith, Cameron Davis and Min Woo Lee of Australia, New Zealand’s Fox, the Republic of Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan. Collectively, alumni of the Asia-Pacific Amateur have gone on to win 34 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 180 events across major professional tours. Additionally, Pan will captain the International Junior Presidents Cup team later this month, which includes a record nine players that are slated to compete in the 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur.
As the host nation, New Zealand is projected to have six representatives in the field led by Swanwick, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Florida. Swanwick previously finished T-12 at the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club and was a member of the winning International Team earlier this year at the Arnold Palmer Cup in Ireland. He will be joined by countrymen Joshua Bai, Yuki Miya, Cooper Moore, Robby Turnbull and Ryan Xie in representing New Zealand.
Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and established in 2022, Te Arai Links’s South Course is located 75 minutes from Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand. The links-style venue – which consistently ranks in the top-100 courses in the world – includes 16 ocean-view holes, looking directly at the Pacific Ocean, and firm, fast fescue built on natural sand dunes. Te Arai Links is also home to ‘The Playground,’ known as the largest putting green in the world. The par-72 South Course will host the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship for the first time and nine years after the Asia-Pacific Amateur was held at Royal Wellington Golf Club in New Zealand.
