APGC
Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Newsletter
Young gun: Oliver Goss became the first Australian to win the silver cup for low amateur at the Masters.
Contents Goss shows who’s the boss at Masters 1 Europe clings to Bonallack Trophy
3
Peter Dawson steps down from R&A
3
New groove rule in place
4
Sam Teker new GNGF president
4
Achanta to advise on Asian Games
4
Jin Jeong at home in Europe
5
APGC delegate to Pacific Games
5
Latest news from Hong Kong
6
asiapacificgolf.org
JUNE 2014
Photo: golf.org.au
Goss shows who’s the boss at the Masters Oliver Goss was celebrating his 20th birthday as he stood on the first tee during the third round of the Masters at Augusta – but his major present was to come the next day.
Goss became the first Australian to win the silver cup for low amateur after making the cut and playing the final two days. While he finished in 49th
spot at 10 over the card and 18 shots off the pace of Masters winner Bubba Watson, the West Australian was delighted with his achievement. “I’m really, really proud of
that, to know that I’m going to be in Butler Cabin on Sunday is huge,” Goss said on the Saturday. “And I honestly don’t think it’s quite hit me yet....but I’m really proud to make the weekend and be low amateur.” Strains of Happy Birthday greeted the Australian as he strode up the 18th fairway. ›
World stage: Despite the jubilation, Oliver Goss said he was “really exhausted” after his Masters experience.
“I’ve got some Tennessee Volunteer fans, a lot of them, actually,” he said. “And a lot of Australian fans, too. “I feel a lot of the crowd is backing me and supporting me, which means a lot. The song was really cool. The week has been absolutely crazy. It’s something I’m not used to. “It’s great. I’m just really glad to have all the support I’m getting from Tennessee and Australia. It’s wonderful.” Despite the jubilation, Goss said he was “really exhausted” after his Masters experience. “I’ve been here since Friday afternoon so I’ve been here eight days now and just focusing on the one event, it’s really tiring. “I think I can take that away into my next tournaments and learn from it. “But it’s the Masters. If you can’t get motivated for the Masters, I don’t know what you’re doing.” Goss opened with a 76 but rebounded with a second round 71 to sneak above the cut-off line, before closing with rounds of 76-75. 2 ❘ APGC Newsletter ❘ JUNE 2014
“It’s the Masters. If you can’t get motivated for the Masters, I don’t know what you’re doing.” The Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion, Korean Chang-woo Lee, had a less than enjoyable Masters debut. Lee struggled with the course during the first round, stumbling to an 80 and although he hit back with a second round 73, the damage had already been done. Nevertheless, he said before the event that he planned to use the experience as a key step in his golf career. “It is a great honour to be here since playing in the Masters is everyone’s dream who actually plays golf and being here, it’s more than just a great honour,” Lee said. “And since I’m representing the Asia-Pacific region I’ll do my best to make a performance.” Lee was surprised during his practice rounds at Augusta,
acknowledging that familiarity with the layout was vital. “The fairways were narrower than I saw on television and the greens were way faster than I ever imagined so I had a pretty hard time at first when we came to the course last week.” He said countryman and US PGA Tour winner K.J.Choi had given him tips during a round together. “He gave me lots of advice about course management and everything ... like on the par fives, just try to (set up) a second shot for the third to get an easier approach shot,” he said. “And like the directions of the tee shots and where the pin positions might actually be at the real tournament, so it was a lot of practice for me.” Lee said he had managed the equivalent of five or six full
Photo: golf.org.au
rounds before he hit off on the Thursday. One issue which might have held the Korean back was the lack of competition available to him between winning the AsiaPacific Amateur Championship in Nanshan, China, last October and playing in the Masters. “After the tournament in Nanshan I actually focused on balance training and weight training,” he said. “There weren’t so many tournaments but I went training overseas in good weather.” Before the event Lee said he was confident of making the cut, based on his effective short game. “I think that the Asian players are not as strong in distance as the players in the United States or in Europe, but (because they are shorter off the tee) they work hard on their short games. “I was watching a lot of videos of the Masters for the past few months and trying to imagine which holes I could make birdie on, so I am quite confident in making the cut,” he said.
Europe clings to Bonallack Europe retained the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy after a hard-fought 17.5 to 14.5 points victory over the Asia-Pacific team at the Karnataka Golf Association course in Bangalore, India.
The Europeans, who have now seized the biennial trophy six times since it was first staged in 1998, managed to win despite the Asia-Pacific players claiming seven of the 12 singles matches. Their win was sealed when 20-year-old Irishman and 2013 Walker Cup player Gavin Moynihan defeated India’s Karan Taunk with two holes left to play. James Ross, the 2013 Scottish Amateur Golfer of the Year, crushed Japan’s Shinchi Mizuno with a five-hole win to help secure success as their opponents made a late charge. Non-playing captain Andy Morgan of Wales said his team were forced to “fight really hard” to secure their triumph on the final day. “Without a doubt, Asia-Pacific
played really well today and the match looked close a number of times during the day,” Morgan said. “The best part about this tournament was that all 13 of us came into Bangalore as individuals and will travel back to our respective countries as one team. These boys will never forget this tremendous experience no matter what else they go on to achieve in their careers,” he added. The teams of 12 players competed over three days, with five morning four-ball matches and five afternoon foursome matches on the first two days and 12 singles matches on the final day. The event showcased the talents of many highly ranked players from both sides. Reigning European Amateur champion Ashley Chesters of England, Renato Paratore of Italy who recently won the Junior Orange Bowl, and 16-year-old Dominic Foos of Germany who
finished tied 16th at the European Tour’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in January all played. From the Asia-Pacific team, Tauk is a former Bangledesh Amateur and Western India Amateur winner, while Australia’s Geoff Drakeford and Taylor MacDonald tied for the individual title at the Nomura Cup in November 2013 alongside Nam-Hun Kim of Korea. Soo-Min Lee, also of Korea, has a professional win under his belt from the Korean Tour’s Gunsan CC Open, and finished fourth at the 2013 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in China. Past competitors include major winners Justin Rose, Geoff Ogilvy and Rory McIlroy. The key to the European success was their domination of the second day as they extended their overnight 6-4 lead to 12.57.5. But the Asia-Pacific team can console themselves with fine individual singles victories from Koreans Nam-hun Kim and Soomin Lee, Japan’s Kenta Konishi
and Daichi Sato, Australian Geoff Drakeford, China’s Jin Cheng and Lee Chieh-Po of Taipei. Winning their respective singles matches for Europe were Mads Soegaard (Denmark), Gavin Moynihan (Ireland), James Ross (Scotland), Robbie van West (Holland) and Ryan Evans (England). Asia-Pacific vice-captain Brad Schadewitz said: “We were pretty happy in the beginning when we exchanged the first two matches against very strong players. “The Koreans Nam-Hun Kim and Soo-Min Lee and then Japanese Daichi Sato were all leading so things were looking really positive but Taunk and Joshua Munn’s matches were critical as they were close and could have swung the tie our way.” Five-time amateur champion and former captain and secretary of The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews Sir Michael Bonallack presented the trophy to Europe.
Peter Dawson steps down from R&A Long-time chief executive of The R&A and secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews Peter Dawson is to retire.
Mr Dawson will step down in September 2015 after 16 years leading the body which organises The Open Championship and governs the sport worldwide in conjunction with the United States Golf Association. Having succeeded Sir Michael Bonallack as Secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1999, Mr Dawson took over in an important period in the club’s history. In 2004, the same year that the club celebrated its 250th anniversary, the private members’ club formed a separate group of companies to run The Open and conduct its governance responsibilities. This evolution enabled The R&A to focus on its governance role, running successful championships and supporting the growth of the game around the world and the club to concentrate on catering for the needs of
Retiring: The R&A’s Peter Dawson.
its more than 2000 members. The Open Championship has enjoyed continuing commercial success throughout Mr Dawson’s tenure enabling The R&A to invest substantially in supporting the development of golf around the world through rules education, grassroots initiatives, coaching, the provision of greenkeeping equipment and university golf.
The R&A now works with 152 affiliated organisations from the amateur and professional game in 138 countries and jointly administers the Rules of Golf, the Rules of Amateur Status, Equipment Standards and the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ with the USGA. Mr Dawson became the Joint Secretary of the International Golf Federation in 1999 and was a key figure in securing golf’s return to the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He was appointed President of the IGF in 2010 and the IGF Board has extended his term of office to 2016. The recruitment of Mr Dawson’s successor will be handled by international executive search firm Spencer Stuart. An appointment is expected to be made in sufficient time to allow for an appropriate handover period in 2015. Expressions of interest in the role should be sent to TheR&A@SpencerStuart.com JUNE 2014 ❘ APGC Newsletter ❘ 3
New groove rule in place The new condition requiring golf clubs to conform to the 2010 groove and punch mark specifications will be in effect at R&A Championships this year. Competitors are being urged to verify the status of their clubs against the new regulations and a searchable database is available on this website.
This condition will be in effect at R&A Championships including all qualifying events applicable to those championships. All competitors must conform to the amended groove regulations which apply to all clubs, apart from drivers and putters. Full details can be found in Decision 4-1/1 of Decisions on the Rules of Golf. Before 2014, the condition was in effect at The Open Championship, International Final Qualifying and Local Final Qualifying, but from 2014 onward will also be in effect at all R&A amateur events including The Amateur Championship, The Seniors Amateur Championship, The Boys Amateur Championship, Regional Qualifying for The Open Championship, as well as many other amateur events worldwide. The condition will not be in effect at the Junior Open Championship. New models of clubs submitted to the governing bodies on or after January 1, 2010 are not currently included in the database and such clubs are required to meet the 2010 groove
specifications by the Rules of Golf. The R&A’s Equipment Standards department will be available to handle queries from players on the issue and also conduct a test service for clubs that need to be tested to ascertain their status. Guidance on how to interpret the database search results and a further explanation of the new specifications is available here: http://www.randa.org/en/ Equipment/Equipment-Search/ Informational-Clubs/GrooveRules-Explained.aspx.
Sam Teker named as new GNGF president The Guam National Golf Federation has appointed Sam Teker as its new president.
Mr Teker, 43, was born in Tamuning in Guam and educated in the US at Southern
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Oregon State College and then at the Seattle University School of Law. He is the managing partner at the law office of Samuel S.Teker and was secretary of the Guam National Golf Federation from 2004-9.
Meanwhile, The R&A’s Championship Committee has decided that it will allow the use of distance measuring devices (DMDs) in R&A amateur events in 2014. DMDs have been covered by an optional Local Rule, which has been available under the Rules of Golf since 2006 (see Note to Rule 14-3 of the Rules of Golf), and the Championship Committee will take up this option for 2014. This Local Rule will be introduced for The R&A’s
amateur events only. It will not be introduced for The Open Championship or any qualifying event for The Open Championship. The Championship Committee would like to emphasise that it has taken this decision for R&A events but is not making this a recommendation for other championship organisers to follow. It remains a matter for individual committees and clubs to decide whether or not they want to allow the use of such devices in their competitions.
India’s Ishwar Achanta to advise on Asian Games The APGC has nominated Indian Golf Union Council member Ishwar Achanta as a Technical Delegate to Asian Games.
He joins countryman Neha Majithia on the panel of 13 Technical Officials. From the Korea Golf Association will be Uihwan Oh,
Sungjae Lee, Doopyo Hong, Taeha Koh, Haehwan Kim, Jaekwan Chang, Jinha Choi, Seongtae Lee and Kyungwoon Choi. Yuji Okubo has been appointed from the Japan Golf Association, Eddy Putra from the Indonesian Golf Association and Dennis Tan from the Singapore Golf Association.
On track: Jin Jeong seems to have settled into the European Tour well this year.
Photo: golf.org.au
Jin Jeong at home in Europe Korea’s former British Amateur Champion Jin Jeong has continued to put his dream ticket to the European Tour to good use after making a bright start.
The Melbourne-based 23-yearold won his spot on the tour when he upset the big names to clinch the ISPS HANDA Perth International by defeating Ross Fisher in a play-off. The result was a further step in his remarkable career progress after he demonstrated his potential by winning the 2010 Amateur Championship at Muirfield.
Last November, in the European Tour event he played following his win in Australia, Jeong snared a share of 18th in the WGC-HSBC Champions and followed that up in January with a tie for 22nd at the Volvo Golf Champions tournament. The two results netted him more than 100,000 euros and boosted him to 74th place in the Race to Dubai. He proceeded to net that much again in one event this year when he finished runner-up in the Joburg Open in February, improving his ranking to 54th. In his Perth triumph, Jeong
completed a remarkable comeback after starting the final day one behind home favourite Brody Ninyette and making a dismal start at Lake Karrinyup with a four-putt double bogey. But he recovered to shoot a three under par 69 and match Fisher’s 10 under total, before a par on the first play-off hole gave him his first professional success. While he seems to have settled into the European Tour well this year, at the time of his win he was a little overawed. “I was nervous, I was shaking but I controlled myself pretty well all day I thought,” said the
former World Amateur No.1. “I don’t know what I’ve done to be honest. I was struggling quite a bit when I was turning pro, but it was going to happen in the learning circuit I guess. “I had played play-offs in mini tour events, but playing with Ross Fisher, he’s one of my heroes. Playing with him in the play-off, it was unbelievable.” Jeong, who had played on The Challenge Tour last season, had made it through to the First Stage of The European Tour Qualifying School, but his Perth win gave him a two-year exemption to the circuit.
Aicken delegate to Pacific Games New Zealander Phil Aicken will act as Technical Delegate to the 15th Pacific Games in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from July 4-18, 2015.
The current Golf Manager for New Zealand Golf, Phil has had a long and
distinguished career as an amateur golfer and golf administrator. A three-times representative for New Zealand in the Eisenhower Trophy, he was also leading amateur in the New Zealand Open from 1979-81 and has won more than
20 tournaments throughout the country. In his role as an administrator, Phil oversaw more than 100 events as NZ Golf Tournament Director from 1993 and was the Asia Pacific Seniors Championship Tournament Director in 2002 and 2003. JUNE 2014 ❘ APGC Newsletter ❘ 5
Latest news from Hong Kong LUCAS Lam and Kitty Tam Yik-ching were the big winners at the Hong Kong Junior Close Championship, which concluded in late April at Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling.
Lam, 17, fired a one-over-par 71 over the new course in windy conditions to catch overnight leader Justin Lok Chung-ho and take the boys’ title for the first time. The International Christian School student’s two-day total of 141 (one-over) was good enough for a four-stroke victory over Lok, the 2013 champion, who had to settle for second place. Isaac Lam and Michael Regan Wong shared third spot, a further shot adrift. “I’ve been hitting the ball really well and my short game has been good,” said Lam, who won last year’s Hong Kong Junior Open by an impressive 10 shots. In the girls’ division, 17-year-old Tam continued her recent domination in local events by romping to a 14-stroke victory. A stellar two-under-par 70 on day one preceded a rollercoaster 75 – a round which included an eagle, three birdies and a triple bogey – as Tam followed up her win in February’s Hong Kong Ladies’ Close Amateur Championship in style. TIFFANY Chan of Hong Kong has won her third individual title in a row and risen to a record high of 55 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. This stunning performance by the 20-year-old is one of several success stories for female Hong Kong golfers who are making their mark on the college golf scene in America.
Described as a “freshman sensation”, Chan has made headlines in the US with a hat-trick of wins for Daytona State, including the UNF Invitational, the JMU Eagle Landing Invitational and the MSU Spring Invitational. Chan’s most recent
led the University of Hawaii in every tournament this season and is the team’s clear number one player. TEAM Guangdong staged a final-day comeback to win the fifth Hong KongGuangdong Interport Junior Team Match on the New Course at Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling.
Winners: 2014 Hong Kong Junior Close Champions Kitty Tam Yik-ching and Lucas Lam.
Hong Kong led by a point after a tight opening day of foursomes and fourballs but the home side could not contain Guangdong in the singles. The visitors from mainland China won eight of the 12 singles matches to claim the Staunton Cup for the third year running with a final score of 14-10. MORE than 35 people attended the recent R&A Level One School on the Rules of Golf, hosted by the Hong Kong Golf Association at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling. Ninety per cent of the 21 who took the R&A Level One Exam passed.
Fine form: Tiffany Chas has risen to a record high of 55 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
victory – at Juliette Falls Golf Club in Ocala, Florida – was her best performance of the season, finishing on 10 under par over three rounds to win by seven. The Tuen Mun-born student, who will join the number one ladies’ team at University of Southern California for her final two years, is one of several Hong Kong Golf Association (HKGA) graduates who are paving the way for Hong Kong girls’ golf in the US. Eighteen-year-old Isabella Leung – who last month accepted an invitation from the HKGA to play in her first professional golf event, the Mission Hills World Ladies Championship in Haikou, China – has
Before the exam, talks were given by R&Adesignated Chief Instructors, Doctor Brian Choa and Ms Candi-Anna Chan. MAX Ting, who qualified for last year’s Hong Kong Open aged only 13, was among 11 Hong Kong golfers crowned Junior Order of Merit winners at the 2014 HKGA EFG Bank Annual Awards Ceremony.
Based on nine HKGA amateur and junior ranking tournaments during 2013, the HKGA EFG Bank Junior Order of Merit winners were: 15-17 years: Leon Philip D’Souza (boys) and Emily Vickie Leung (girls); 13-14 years: Max Ting and Michelle Lee; 11-12 years: Nathan Han and Selina Li; 9-10 years: Maurice Leung and joint girl winners Chloe Chan and Stephanie Wong; 6-8 years: Julius Yang and Charlene Chung.
Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation
Chairman Dr David Cherry
Vice chairman Secretary general Treasurer Mr Philip Hassall Mr Dilip Thomas Mr Taimur Amin
Honorary secretary Championship Mr Zhang Xiaoning Committee Mr Kyungjae Lee chairman Mr Keisuki Muratsu
Mr Rungsid Luxsitanonda
Mr Mohammed Faisal Al-Naimi
The Asia Pacific Golf Confederation encourages all member nations to contribute news from their countries for inclusion in the APGC Newsletter. News items can be emailed to the editor Robert Grant at rob.grant1948@gmail.com 6 ❘ APGC Newsletter ❘ JUNE 2014