{"id":944936,"date":"2026-10-29T08:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944936\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T08:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:18:16","slug":"bad-luck-aussies-the-chasers-at-asia-pacific-amateur-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944936\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Bad luck&#8217;: Aussies the chasers at Asia-Pacific Amateur \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian golfer Kayun Mudadana rued a bad break as Thailand\u2019s defending champion made an ominous start at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Mudadana was content with his two-under 69 in a windy opening round at Te Arai Links, 100km north of Auckland, in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>But the 20-year-old and the rest of the field are chasing reigning champ Fifa Laopakdee, who fired a stunning eight-under 63 on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Australia\u2019s top-ranked amateur, and the top-ranked golfer in the field, Harry Tikas carded one under in a tournament carrying a coveted prize: the winner secures a berth at next year\u2019s US Masters and British Open.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793261894_643_.jpeg\" alt=\"Kayun Mudadana.\"\/>Kayun Mudadana tees off on the 17th at Te Arai Links at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship. (<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20261029153859732423\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PR IMAGE PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Mudadana was among the leaders at four under and blemish-free until striking trouble on his 17th hole \u2013 the par-3 eighth \u2013 leading to a double-bogey.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian missed the green and copped a tough lie, forcing him to chip sideways.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t really in any danger all day,\u201d Mudadana said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut on eight, I pulled a pretty bad lie and had no real options. Just a bit of bad luck.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI played pretty well. It\u2019s not the easiest day out there with all sorts of conditions \u2026 I can\u2019t complain, it was a solid round.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793261896_309_.jpeg\" alt=\"Harry Takis.\"\/>Australia\u2019s top-ranked amateur Harry Takis putts on the fifth hole in New Zealand. (<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20261029186079419197\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PR IMAGE PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>In winds of 45km\/h, compatriot Takis banked consecutive birdies followed by an eagle to be four under through seven holes.<\/p>\n<p>But his putter then faltered, with a trio of three-putts marring his round.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI putted really good the front nine, made a few really long ones and didn\u2019t really miss anything,\u201d Takis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then I really struggled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the greens get this baked out, there\u2019s not much grass on them, and when you get a gust downwind you feel like you can tap it and it\u2019ll go 20 feet, so that was a big struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Behind pacesetter Laopakdee are New Zealanders Joshua Bai (66), Ryan Xie and Cooper Moore (both 67).<\/p>\n<p>Mudadana and Takis were the only Australians under par, with Wesley Hinton even, Harrison Gomez, Sam Cascio and Jonty Lunson all two over, 58-year-old Graham Hourn eight over and Rick Heath 12 over.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, tournament organisers announced venues for the next two years, with Hoiana Shores Golf Club in \u200cHoi An, Vietnam, to host next year, followed by Sydney\u2019s New \u200cSouth Wales Golf Club in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>This article was made possible with support from the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian golfer Kayun Mudadana rued a bad break as Thailand\u2019s defending champion made an ominous start at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,1736,405163,10956,85],"class_list":["post-944936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-new-zealand","tag-overseas-sport","tag-pacific","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944936","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=944936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}