Five in Japan for the 15th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship

Fresh from playing for Team International at the Junior Presidents Cup, Rayhan Abdul Latief will lead his compatriots at the 15th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.

His energy might be drained enough. But for Rayhan Abdul Latief, there is nothing like playing for his country at the most prestigious championship in the region. This is, after all, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship. A direct ticket to the Major dream, a direct ticket to one of the hallowed grounds in golf, Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters Tournament and the original open golf championship, The Open Championship.

Just two weeks ago, he competed for North Sumatra at the 21st Indonesian Sports Week or Indonesian National Games. Playing seven consecutive rounds, winning two silvers and a gold medal, then headed straight to Canada, winning 1,5 points for Captain Graham DeLaet, who once again had to bow down to the powerful Team US.

Rayhan is accompanied by his fellow Indonesians: Gabriel Hansel Hari, Randy Arbenata Mohamad Bintang, Kenneth Henson Sutianto, and William Justin Wijaya. For Rayhan and Randy, this week will be their third appearance at the Championship and will be the second for Hansel and Kenneth, with William making his debut competing with the best players from the Asia-Pacific region.

Rayhan and Randy made their best finish at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, both finished T31 and T48 respectively, but Hansel and Kenneth are yet to make the most of their appearance. However it is expected they can perform much better this week, especially Kenneth as he will be much more fresh than his other compatriots as he is not participating at the Indonesian National Games in North Sumatra.

Despite the world ranking can never guarantee the result of any golf tournament, it is a testament to how good a player's performance is. Rayhan was World No.171, Hansel was 211th, Randy 241st, William 491st, and Kenneth 537th in July 2024. It is also true that each player has dropped from their early ranking when they received the formal invitation from the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation—Rayhan is now 190th, Hansel 232nd, Randy 267th, Kenneth 607th, and William 780th. But all the golf they’ve been playing, and all the practice they poured out so far can determine how well their game is now against best of the best from the region this week.

Yet this week will present a new challenge as playing in Japan is never easy for any Indonesian. It was true that three Indonesians made the cut when the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship was played in Japan for the first time in 2010. But out of three, only now retired William Sjaichudin shot under par in the second round at Kasumigaseki Country Club, when he shot 2-under 69.

Since the inception of the Championship in 2009, the best performance from Indonesia came from George Gandranata, when in 2011 he finished T17. He shot 3-under 285, 15 strokes behind Hideki Matsuyama.

However, two other Indonesians also wrote a slice history at the Championship. In his fourth appearance at the Championship, precisely in the third round of the 2018 edition, Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra shot the lowest round any Indonesian can make with 7-under 63 at Sentosa Golf Club. Naraajie also became the most frequent Indonesian player competing at the Championship with a total of six appearances from 2015-2021, minus 2020 when the Championship was canceled due to COVID-19.

In 2022, in his debut for the Championship, Randy became the only Indonesian with the most birdies in one round. He made 9 birdies in the second round of the 2022 edition. Unfortunately, back then he missed the cut by a stroke.

With a total of 120 players from 40 Asia-Pacific countries, the 15th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship is a championship worth watching. Thanks to the R&A, Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, and Masters Tournament, the Championship has been one of the most critical platforms in the region to create future champions. With Creating Heroes as the tagline, golf fans in the Asia-Pacific can expect to have a worthy champion come Sunday afternoon.

Three hours of live coverage on each of the four rounds will be available on TBS (Japan), ESPN (United States and Latin America), Fox Sports (Australia), iQIYI (China), SBS Sports (Republic of Korea), Sky Sports (United Kingdom) SPOTV (Pan-Asia), SuperSport (Africa), TSN (Canada), and Warner Bros. Discovery (Europe).

Coverage runs from 14:00-17:00 local time on Thursday (3 Oct.) and Friday (4 Oct), while on Saturday (5 Oct) and Sunday (6 Oct) it will air from 12:00-15:00 local time.