Asia-Pacific Amateur starts at Te Arai with a Masters invite at stake

The 17th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship starts Thursday in New Zealand, which is Wednesday night in the U.S., at the South course at Te Arai Links. The winner gets an invitation to the 2027 Masters and exemptions into the 155th Open at St Andrews and the 131st Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush, according to Golfweek and Golf Digest.

The field has 120 players from 39 countries, and 53 of them are first-time starters. It is 72 holes of stroke play, with the top 60 and ties making the cut after 36. The Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design opened in 2022, sits about 75 minutes from Auckland and plays as a par 71 at 6,842 yards. Sixteen holes have Pacific Ocean views, and this is the first time the course has hosted the event.

Thailand's Fifa Laopakdee, 21, is the defending champion. Last year in Dubai he came from six shots back in the final round and beat Japan's Taisei Nagasaki in a playoff, then played the Masters and The Open. A win would make him the second player to defend the title, after Hideki Matsuyama in 2010 and 2011.

"The greens are very, very firm, and when it gets windy out there, you have to keep the ball low and in play," Laopakdee told the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation.

He opens in the marquee group with Australia's Harry Takis and New Zealand's Zack Swanwick, the top two players in the field at No. 21 and No. 23 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Laopakdee is No. 30. New Zealand has nine players entered and has never won the event, and Florida's Joshua Bai is another home hope. Golf Digest also flags Nagasaki, who set the championship's 54-hole record at 17 under last year before a closing 74.

How to watch: ESPN+ carries all four rounds live from 9 p.m. to midnight ET, Wednesday through Saturday, with tape-delayed replays on ESPN2 overnight.

What's next: The cut comes after Friday's second round in New Zealand. Watch the wind. Laopakdee and Bai both pointed to it this week, and Bai called local experience with it an advantage for the New Zealanders.