13-year-old Kartik stood out as the youngest contender in the competition
After a relatively poor showing in Abu Dhabi last week at the World Amateur Men’s Team event, the Indian boys were at the famous Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia for the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship, which on account of awarding the winner invitations to the Augusta Masters and British Open championship has become the most sought after amateur title in the region.
The bright spot for India was Delhi’s Kartik Singh, who made history as the youngest competitor in the tournament at the age of 13 years, nine months, and 22 days and became the youngest golfer to make the cut in the tournament’s history, surpassing the previous record held by China’s Tianlang Guan, who was 14 years and eight days old when he reached the weekend in 2012.
The youngest in the field at this year’s Championship, and a Rubik’s cube sensation, Kartik Singh is looking to emulate India’s best and create a career in golf. pic.twitter.com/FCXqCIoeE4
— Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (@AAC_Golf) October 29, 2023
Kartik, presently enrolled in the 8th grade, is pursuing a hybrid blended learning program at Northern Pre-University in Canada.
Since invites to this tournament are awarded purely on the basis of World Amateur Rankings, Shubham Jaglan, a junior at University of South Florida, who wasn’t selected by the IGU for the Abu Dhabi event, was able to participate here and ended as the top indian with rounds of 72-77-75-74 to register a tied-28th finish.
In 2021, Jaglan had finished 11th at the same event played in Dubai.
Best Indian finishes at the Asia Pacific Amateur over the years
2022 – Aryan Roopa Anand – T-38th – 75-69-74-71 (+1) in Thailand
2021 – Shubham Jaglan – T-11th – 70-68-69-69 (-8) in Dubai
2019 – Kartik Sharma – T-21st – 77-68-67-76 (E) in China
2018 – Rayhan Thomas – 2nd – 74-64-65-66 (-11) in Singapore
2017 – Rayhan Thomas & Priyanshu Singh – T-35th (+5) in New Zealand
2016 – Viraj Madappa – T-26th – 76-72-72-77 (+9) in South Korea
2015 – Samarth Dwivedi – T-42nd – 67-73-73 (+3) in Hong Kong
Totally five out of the seven participating Indians made the halfway cut, marking a notable improvement from the 2021 results when only three managed to do so. Shaurya Bhattacharya had a 31st place finish, Yuvraj Singh, and Raghav Chugh, who plays US college golf in Texas, ended 37th.
Delhi’s Krishnav Nikhil Chopra missed the cut by just three strokes while Vedant Sirohi missed by a larger margin.
The APAC is the most prestigious Amateur event in Asia, where invitations are sent out to leading players from the 42 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) affiliated countries based on their World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). The tournament was won by Australian Jasper Stubbs in a two-hole playoff against the Chinese pair of Sampson Zheng and Wenyi Ding.
The intensity of the playoff was palpable as Stubbs and Ding both birdied the initial extra hole, prolonging the suspense. However, on the second extra hole, Stubbs clinched the win with a composed par, while Ding struggled with a bogey.
Photo – AAC