Dubai, United Arab Emirates: The Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), the Masters Tournament and The R&A have confirmed that Te Arai Links’s South Course will host the 17th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship from October 29-November 1, 2026.
This marks the Championship’s second appearance in New Zealand and its inaugural visit to Te Arai Links.
The annual competition brings together the leading male amateurs from across the Asia-Pacific region, representing 43 APGC-affiliated organisations. The winner 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.”
Previous competitors of note include 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, who captured the Asia-Pacific Amateur title twice, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith.
Across its 15-year existence, the championship has proven to be a launching pad for numerous world-class players, including Matsuyama, 2018 champion Takumi Kanaya and 2021 champion Keita Nakajima of Japan, Smith, Cameron Davis and Min Woo Lee of Australia, Koreans Kim Si-woo, Chinese Taipei’s CT Pan and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, the latter of whom holds the course record at Te Arai Links.
Combined, graduates of the Asia-Pacific Amateur have captured 33 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 150 events across major professional Tours.
Jim Rohrstaff, Managing Director of Te Arai Links, said: “We are incredibly honoured to be hosting the Asia-Pacific Amateur at Te Arai Links in 2026. 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.”
Created by designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened in 2022, Te Arai Links’s South Course is positioned 75 minutes from Auckland in New Zealand’s North Island.
The links-style facility – which appears in the top-100 courses worldwide – boasts 16 ocean view holes with direct views of the Pacific Ocean, and firm, fast fescue constructed on natural sand dunes. Te Arai Links is also home to ‘The Playground,’ recognized as the largest putting green in the world.
The par-72 South Course will stage the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship for the first time, nine years after New Zealand last hosted the event at Royal Wellington Golf Club, where China’s Lin Yuxin claimed victory.
