| The WAAP once again highlights the precociousness of regional golf talent  (Source: R&A) The Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) Championship, which was played in Singapore last week and won by Thailand’s Eila Galitsky, and its men’s version – the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (to be held later this year in Melbourne) – are truly crystal-ball tournaments. I work in official capacity during both the events, but this is not a hard-sell. Both tournaments are now established as premier amateur events in Asia-Pacific region, attracting the finest young talent. Both have money-can’t-buy prizes on offer for the champions and give these young stars a taste of what lies ahead of them if they pursue a career in golf. What the WAAP lays out for its winner is absolutely mind-blowing. Apart from the silverware, it offers dream starts in three major championships – the AIG Women’s Open, The Amundi Evian Championship and The Chevron Championship – as well as exemption to LPGA and LET events like the Hana Financial Group Championship and ISPS Handa Australian Open, and elite amateur tournaments like The Women’s Amateur Championship and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. And it’s not just the eventual winner who benefits. With some of the leading college coaches keeping a keen eye on the proceedings, a good performance can usher the player into a college golf career in the United States. In countries that have a national team structure, it can help the players get fast-tracked into the system, like Mizuki Hashimoto was drafted in by Japan following her win in Abu Dhabi. The WAAP is developed by The R&A, the world governing body, and Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), with the aim of unearthing emerging talent in the region and providing Asia's elite female amateurs with a route to the international stage. So far, the results have been exceptional. The highlight of the short history of the championship came last year when, on the same week of the fourth edition in Thailand, Atthaya Thitikul, winner of the inaugural championship in 2018, climbed to No1 position in the Rolex Ranking. While R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers always points out to the championship’s responsibility to make the players from developing countries better, there is no denying the fact that the top Asia-Pacific players, especially from powerhouse countries like Japan, Thailand and Korea, are ready to make their mark on the world stage, and WAAP is a good launching pad for them. A couple of things are worth noting about the championship… The first is how young the field is becoming. Gone are the days when the elite amateurs would be in their mid 30s. The age levels have come down drastically, and you can feel it even more clearly in women’s events. At Singapore Island Country Club this year, 61 out of the 85 players in the field were under the age of 20. The oldest player was 30, while the youngest – hold your breath – was 12-year-old Yujie Liu of China. Even more remarkable is the fact that Liu shot two sub-par rounds, made the cut and finished a very decent tied 32nd. The eventual champion, Galitsky, is just 16, and so is the runner-up Minsol Kim of Korea. One of the pre-tournament favourites, India’s Avani Prashanth, who won the Queen Sirikit Cup by 10 shots last month, is also 16. The 2022 champion Ting Hsuan-Huang of Chinese Taipei just turned 18. The second thing is that women’s amateur game is in a great place in the region. Even though missing a few top players – like Japan’s Baba Saki – the field was extremely deep with 19 of the top-100 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) playing in Singapore, including seven of the top-20. You also get to know some cool things about these young players. Like, Galitsky carries a driver, a 3-wood and a 2-iron in her bag. Almost every player on the LPGA, and even a majority of PGA Tour stars, do not use a 2-iron anymore. They’d rather have the more forgiving hybrids irons. Galitsky has a rather thin frame, but smashes the ball an impressive distance. On the par-5 18th hole on Sunday, she hit her drive a whopping 375 yards and was left with just a seven-iron second shot to 152 yards to the pin. The fairway slopes down considerably and her adrenaline would have been pumping, but it was still an impressive rip from the tee. From the Indian perspective, the 2023 WAAP proved disappointing. Prashanth hit the ball well, but struggled on the tricky greens with her putter on all four days. Nishna Patel was the only other player to make the cut. She was solid the first three days, but slipped on Sunday. Anika Varma had a torrid second round and a quadruple bogey derailed her chances of playing in the weekend. Mannat Brar, along with Prashanth, was coming off her 10th Board exams, and hence did not have the best preparation for the tournament. Vidhatri Urs and Lavanya Jadon also missed the cut. And yet, I had a chat with Brigadier JS Brar, Mannat’s father, and it was an eye-opener as to how much learning they seem to have gathered during the week. The Brigadier was 100 percent certain that Mannat would be a far better player next time after working on a few things that they have discussed. The one thing I would have loved to happen during the week was the presence of a senior IGU official from the newly-elected council. It would have been a fantastic opportunity to meet officials from both the R&A and APGC. Unfortunately, nobody was there. | 
