The Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), the Masters Tournament and The R&A today announced that the 17th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship will be contested at Te Arai Links’ South Course in Tomarata, New Zealand, from 29 October – 1 November, 2026. The Championship will return to New Zealand for the second time and make its debut at Te Arai Links.
The field is comprised annually of the top male amateurs in the Asia-Pacific region representing the 43 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation affiliated organisations. The champion of the 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur will receive an invitation to compete in the following year’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and an exemption into The 155th Open at St Andrews. The runner(s)-up will gain a place in Final Qualifying for The Open.
“We are delighted to be taking the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship back to New Zealand and to be staging it at Te Arai Links for the first time,” said Mark Darbon, Chief Executive of The R&A. “Te Arai’s South Course is an exceptional venue and will provide a fantastic test of golf in a spectacular location. Our goal for the Championship is to continue to inspire and develop the region’s most talented players and we look forward to another outstanding edition in 2026.”
Notable past competitors include 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith. Over the Championship’s 15-year history, the Championship has served as a springboard to some of the world’s top players, including Matsuyama, 2018 champion Takumi Kanaya and 2021 champion Keita Nakajima of Japan, Smith, Cameron Davis and Min Woo Lee of Australia, the Republic of Korea’s Si Woo Kim, Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, the latter of whom holds the course record at Te Arai Links. Collectively, alumni of the Asia-Pacific Amateur have gone on to win 33 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 150 events across major professional tours.
“We are incredibly honoured to be hosting the Asia-Pacific Amateur at Te Arai Links in 2026,” said Jim Rohrstaff, Managing Director of Te Arai Links. “This is one of the top amateur tournaments in the world and run by some of the top organisations in golf. As a very young facility (opened in October of 2022), this reiterates what a special place we have here in New Zealand. Having an event with the best amateur golfers in the Asia-Pacific region is going to be phenomenal against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. Our team, membership and the New Zealand golf community will be cheering on all of the amateurs that are privileged to qualify for the Championship.”
Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and established in 2022, Te Arai Links’s South Course is located 75 minutes from Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand. The links-style venue – which consistently ranks in the top-100 courses in the world – includes 16 ocean view holes, looking directly at the Pacific Ocean, and firm, fast fescue built on natural sand dunes. Te Arai Links is also home to ‘The Playground,’ known as the largest putting green in the world. The par-72 South Course will host the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship for the first time and nine years after the Asia-Pacific Amateur was held at Royal Wellington Golf Club in New Zealand.
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