Australia's Nguyen Anh Minh is the first Vietnamese golfer to enter the top 10 of the Asia- Pacific Amateur Championship (APAC) when the 2023 tournament ended on the afternoon of October 29.
Every APAC since its inception in 2009 has featured a Vietnamese competitor, with the best result being T46 by Truong Chi Quan in 2016. But today, Anh Minh has just pushed that finish up 39 places, to T7 with a +6 score after four rounds at the par-71 Royal Melbourne course in Australia.
In the final round, Anh Minh started from hole 1 with a score of +7, down to +11 after hole 9. However, on the next nine holes, Vietnam's number one amateur made a spectacular sprint, showing through five birdies and the rest were all pars.
At the +6 finish, Anh Minh was T6 with Marcus Pang Chuen Lim. At that time, there were six players in the final round, with the last group having three players and two holes left. When this group finished, there were six players divided into four places above Anh Minh, with T1 (+1) including Jasper Stubbs, Wenyi Ding, Sampson Yunhe Zheng, T4 (+2) including Chuan-Tai Lin and Max Charles, and sixth place (+4) being Kazuma Kobori.
Anh Minh walks off the field after completing the final round of APAC 2023. Photo: Bach Cuong Khang
This order pushed Anh Minh and Lim down to T7. This is the second time Anh Minh has participated in APAC. Last year, this 2007-born talent finished 48th (+9) when the tournament took place on the par-72 course of Amata Spring Country Club in Chonburi, Thailand.
To determine the 2023 APAC champion, Stubbs, an Australian, played a second hole against Ding and Zheng, both Chinese nationals. Ding was eliminated in the first round, at the par-4 18th hole, after making a par while both opponents birdied. In the second round, also at the 18th hole, Stubbs kept par to beat Zheng with a bogey. Stubbs took home the cup and a ticket to two majors - the Masters and The Open 2024.
At APAC 2023, in addition to Anh Minh, the Vietnamese team also has Le Khanh Hung and Doan Uy. Khanh Hung finished T24 (+13), while Doan Uy stopped after round 2 with a score of +20. The cut-off line is at +12 according to the principle of taking top or T60.
APAC was launched by the Asia- Pacific Golf Confederation in 2009 for amateur golfers in the region and is currently sponsored by two major-owning organizations – Augusta National in Georgia, USA (Masters) and Royal & Ancient in Scotland (The Open). Thanks to this, the APAC champion will have a place in the Masters and The Open in the following year. These two prestigious tournaments have both had APAC champions – Hideki Matsuyama (Masters 2021), Cameron Smith (The Open 2022).
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