MELBOURNE: The 15th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship will be contested at Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course in Gotemba, Japan, from Oct 3-6, 2024.
The announcement was made today by the championship’s founding partners, the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, the Masters Tournament and The R&A, during the on-going 2023 edition at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club. This will be the second time that the Asia-Pacific Amateur will be staged in Japan, 14 years after Hideki Matsuyama won the second edition in 2010.
The field is comprised annually of the top male amateurs in the Asia-Pacific region, representing the 43 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation-affiliated organisations. The champion of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur will receive an invitation to compete in the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and automatically qualifies for The 153rd Open. The runner(s)-up will gain a place in Final Qualifying for The Open.
“Returning to Japan for the 15th edition of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship brings the championship full circle,” said Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, on behalf of the founding partners.
“The Asia-Pacific Amateur has an extensive history in Japan, starting with Hideki Matsuyama’s victory more than a decade ago, and we are committed to building on that legacy in 2024 at a world-class venue in Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course.”
Notable past competitors include 2021 Masters champion Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith. Collectively, alumni of the Asia-Pacific Amateur have gone on to win 24 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 120 across the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
“We are excited to welcome the best players from across the Asia-Pacific region to Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba Course in 2024,” said Shun Han, President of Taiheiyo Club. “The Gotemba Course is one of the world’s top courses and we look forward to the test it will provide to some of the most talented golfers in the world.”
Designed in 1977 by Shunsuke Kato, the Gotemba Course is the flagship of Taiheiyo Club’s 18 golf courses and underwent a renovation in 2018 overseen by Rees Jones with consultation from Matsuyama. Situated 100km southwest of Tokyo and featuring views of Mount Fuji, the course has hosted a number of international events including the Taiheiyo Masters and the 2001 World Cup of Golf won by South Africa’s Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
“It will be an honour to welcome this elite championship back to Japan after hosting the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in 2010,” said Andy Yamanaka, Executive Director of the Japan Golf Association.
“We are prepared to showcase Japanese golf at the highest levels and build on the success that past champions such as Hideki Matsuyama, Takumi Kanaya and Keita Nakajima have had at this championship.”
In addition to Matsuyama and Smith, the Asia-Pacific Amateur has served as a springboard for some of the world’s top players including Australia’s Cameron Davis, Lucas Herbert, Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith, Taiwan’s C.T. Pan, the Republic of Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Japan’s Takumi Kanaya, Satoshi Kodaira and Keita Nakajima, and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox.