Finishing touches made as Championship week begins
One hour north west of Tokyo, final preparations are nearing completion at Kasumigaseki Country Club ahead of the second Asian Amateur Championship, which begins next Thursday, 7 October. From tomorrow [Tuesday] at 7.00am local time, Championship week gets underway with players taking to the West Course at Kasumigaseki for the first of their practice rounds.
Tee-boards, electronic scoreboards, television towers and numerous other temporary structures have been erected and now sit quietly alongside tees, fairways and greens, awaiting the arrival of 120 of the best amateur golfers in the Asia-Pacific region.
150 countries are to receive television coverage of the 72-hole stroke play event, which is organised by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, and supported by The R&A and the Masters Tournament.
Last year’s runner-up Eric Chun comes to Japan having impressed at the 150th Anniversary Open Championship at St Andrews in July, where he missed the cut by just one stroke. The Korean secured his Open place at International Final Qualifying (IFQ) – Asia, an opportunity earned by virtue of his second-place performance during the inaugural Asian Amateur at Mission Hills, China.
Chun will be hoping to go one better this year, thus claiming the invitation to play in the 2011 Masters Tournament, as well as the place in IFQ, which await the Champion. His compatriot, Kim Sih-wan, will be looking to do the same. The former world number five has a fine pedigree, having become the first freshman student from Stanford University to become a first-team All American since Tiger Woods.
Home hopes will be carried by 15-year-old Masamichi Ito and Yoshinori Fujimoto. Ito recently triumphed at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, in the Faldo Series Europe Grand Final, having won the Faldo Series Asia earlier in the year – the first player to achieve that feat. Fujimoto, meanwhile, won twice in September and reached a career-high of 17th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
A strong antipodean contingent, led by Australians Matt Jager and Kieran Pratt, along with New Zealand’s Ben Campbell, is also expected to contend. In 2010, Jager won both the Australian Amateur and the Australian Amateur Stroke Play championships in successive weeks, while Pratt was arguably the world’s form amateur at the turn of the year, winning four events in just six starts.
Live coverage of the Asian Amateur Championship, as well as live scores and regular reports will appear on AsianAmateurChampionship.com throughout the week.
