The Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Apertura round will have no shortage of impressive shots on Thursday at the Te Arai Links’ South course in New Zealand. A year after overcoming a six-shot deficit to win the championship in Dubai, Thailand’s Pongsapak “Fifa” Laopakdee finds himself on the leaderboard.
The defending champion opened with an impressive eight-under 63 to take a three-shot lead despite winds gusting over 30 mph along the New Zealand coast. Laopakdee picked up the round with a bogey-in eagle on the par-5 ninth, and again bogeyed on the 15th.
The 21-year-old Arizona State senior is bidding to become the second player to win consecutive Asia-Pacific Amateur titles, joining Hideki Matsuyama, who accomplished the feat in 2010 and 2011.
Advertisement
The windy conditions posed challenges for the 120-player field, but it didn’t prevent some spectacular golf.
Australia’s Harry Takis, a junior at San Diego State, made the opening seven, hoisting an eagle on the par-5 seventh after he ran a driver off the deck and sank a thirty-foot putt. Takis topped the field as the highest-ranked player sitting at No. 21 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Takis entered the week among the favourites, along with Laopakdee and New Zealander Zack Swanwick, 23rd in the world.
For Laopakdee, the opportunity to defend the title comes after a victory that changed the trajectory of his amateur career. Last year at the Emirates Golf Club, he started the final round six shots behind Japan’s Taisei Nagasaki before carding a closing 68 and winning the third playoff hole. The victory made him the first Thai amateur to earn a master’s invitation and secured his place in the 2026 Open Championship. Now it is time to return to the larger of the two.
Advertisement
The winner of this week’s championship receives an invitation to the 2027 Masters and a spot in the Open Championship at St. Andrews, where Laopakdee could make his second appearance.
Meanwhile, the nation has its army of competitors. New Zealand’s Joshua Bai opened with a five-under 66 to sit three shots off the lead. The University of Florida shot at Pinehurst No. 2 earlier this year won the North & South Amateur and made the cut in each of his four events at the Asia Pacific Amateur.
Bai is among nine New Zealanders in the field, a group that includes Florida teammate Swanwick. No New Zealand has won the championship since its inception in 2009.
The course record belongs to New Zealand native and PGA Tour winner Ryan Fox, who shot 60 in 2023 and said he has his eye on the championship this week.