Cascio<\/a> is also making his championship debut. Earlier this year, he won two World Amateur Golf Ranking events in Australia and recorded top-20 performances in the Toyota Junior World Cup in Japan, Australian Amateur and Queensland Amateur. In 2025, he won three events in Australia and finished 14th in the Australian Boys\u2019 Amateur.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nWesley Hinton \u2014 Keperra Country Golf Club (Brisbane)
Hinton is another making his first start in the championship in 2026. Earlier this year, he finished seventh in the South Australia Amateur Classic and reached the round of 64 in the Amateur Championship in England. In 2025, he won four World Amateur Golf Ranking events in Australia, including both the Queensland Amateur and Gary Player Classic.\u00a0He was a recipient of the Cameron Smith Scholarship in 2024.<\/p>\n
Rick Heath \u2014 Golf Club Lausanne (based in Switzerland)
Heath is making his championship debut. Earlier this year, the former general secretary of the European Golf Association finished runner-up in the R&A Senior Amateur in England. In 2025, he finished runner-up in the European Seniors Championship in T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n
Jonty Lunson \u2013 Devonport Golf Club (Tasmania)
A late addition to the field, Lunson is making his championship debut. Earlier this year, he won the Singapore Open Amateur and Queensland Amateur, finished T-4 in the Australian Amateur and represented his country in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Team Championship in China.<\/p>\n
THE COURSE<\/p>\n
After its previous New Zealand staging at Royal Wellington Golf Club in 2017, the event moves 90 minutes north of Auckland to Te Arai Links\u2019 South course, a spectacular coastal venue established in 2022 that is hosting the biggest tournament in its short history.<\/p>\n
Designed by Bill Coore, the par-72 layout features firm, fast fescue, natural sand dunes and 16 holes with views across the Pacific Ocean. It measures 6,259 metres and is also home to Ryan Fox, New Zealand\u2019s reigning Open champion, who holds the course record.<\/p>\n
HEADLINERS<\/p>\n
Harry Takis \u2014 Australia
Australia\u2019s Harry Takis, ranked 17th in the world amateur rankings when the field was announced, finished fourth in 2025 and arrives after winning the 2026 Southwestern Invitational in US college golf.<\/p>\n
Zack Swanwick \u2014 New Zealand
The University of Florida junior is one of New Zealand\u2019s leading amateur prospects, having recorded three top-10 college finishes in 2025-2026 and represented the International Team at the 2026 Arnold Palmer Cup.<\/p>\n
Fifa Laopakdee \u2014 Thailand
The defending champion is aiming to become only the second player to win the title in consecutive years, after Hideki Matsuyama\u2019s back-to-back victories in 2010 and 2011.<\/p>\n
Nguyen Anh Minh \u2014 Vietnam
The Oregon State University standout finished runner-up at the 2025 US Junior Amateur before winning the individual title at the 2026 Bandon Dunes Championship.<\/p>\n
Taisei Nagasaki \u2014 Japan
Last year\u2019s runner-up will be eager to go one better after holding a five-shot lead entering the final round before losing to Fifa Laopakdee in a playoff.<\/p>\n
Cooper Moore \u2014 New Zealand
The 18-year-old won the 2025 Australian Boys\u2019 Amateur and finished runner-up at the 2026 New Zealand PGA Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Nick Wall] An invitation to the Masters at Augusta National and a place in The Open at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[431724,64,63,755,509161,448193,210866,509162,509163,509164,431726,85,192385,509165],"class_list":["post-941976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-asia-pacific-amateur-championship","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-graham-hourn","tag-harrison-gomez","tag-harry-takis","tag-jonty-lunson","tag-kayun-mudadana","tag-rick-heath","tag-sam-cascio","tag-sports","tag-te-arai-links","tag-wes-hinton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}