Augusta National and R&A delighted with Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship

Guan Tianlang’s victory at the 2012 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship has inspired a generation of Chinese golfers to take up the sport - exactly what the tournament’s founding partners wanted.

David Cherry, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Federation (APGF), said the tournament has far exceeded expectations since it was launched in 2009.

“The excitement in Asia-Pacific countries is overwhelming with respect to young players wanting to take up the game so they can play in this event and the tremendous rewards it offers,” said Cherry.

“In my wildest dreams I didn’t expect this - a 13 year old from China [Guan] winning? And golf is reasonably new there. It is an inspiration to countries where golf is not even on the radar as a major sport.”

The tournament is a partnership between the APGF, Augusta National Golf Club and R&A - among the most influential bodies in world golf. The winner of the event earns an invitation to play at the US Masters in August and in the British Open qualifiers.

Augusta and US Masters chairman Billy Payne said: “We started with a certain motivation to expose a new generation of golfers in the Asia-Pacific region to this wonderful game and you do it simply by creating heroes.

“And we are quite a ways down the road to successfully creating heroes who have won this event and are enticing people to take up golf.”

Organisers said next year’s tournament will take place at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in New Sondo City, South Korea - the host of next week’s Presidents Cup - from October 6-9 2016.

The 2017 event will be hosted by the Royal Wellington Golf Club in New Zealand from October 26-29.

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said the championship is not an ordinary amateur tournament.

“This is as close to a professional event as you can get,” said Slumbers. “The selection of the course is dependent on a couple of things. The key objective is trying to grow the game across the region and give these players the opportunity to play on really world-class courses set up properly in the right conditions.”

Geoff Riddell, of founding and ever-present sponsor Zurich, said his company got involved in 2008 when the partners originally mooted the idea of a stroke-play international amateur event.

“All our expectations are fully met,” said Riddell, whose company is in the second year of their second four-year contract with the tournament.