Wide-Eyed and Fearless: The Youngest in the Field
Amelie and Elise, the Youngest in the Field
The youngest players in the field are arriving with very different accents — and the same wide-eyed sense of wait, this is actually happening.
At just 13, Wellington’s own Elise Barber — the youngest in the field — steps onto her home course for the biggest tournament of her young life. A last-minute withdrawal swung the door open, and the dream invite still feels utterly surreal.
“You’re kidding me… no way!” Barber said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
She isn’t here only for the experience. Barber’s 2025 season was the kind that makes junior golf hard to ignore: she won the Australian Junior Age Division Championship (Girls 11–12), finished runner-up at the New Zealand Women’s Stroke Play Championship against adult competition, and helped Wellington place third at the Women’s Interprovincial.
Alongside her is Amelie Blossom Ng, 14, making her WAAP debut — and her first trip to New Zealand — with the confidence of someone already comfortable winning away from home. The Singaporean has claimed titles domestically and overseas, finished runner-up at the Singapore National Women’s Amateur, and placed fifth at the Hong Kong Girls’ Junior Open. She even prepared for Wellington’s length by playing from the men’s tees back home.
“I didn’t expect to get the invitation,” Ng said. “But after I processed it, I felt really proud.”
Both teenagers know the scale of the week. Barber calls it the biggest event she’s ever played. Ng keeps saying “hopefully” — hopefully the cut, hopefully the weekend, hopefully something more — because at 14, why not dream?