WAAP Academy<\/a> in November, where she trained alongside fellow Royal Wellington member Amy Yu and players from across the Pacific Islands region.<\/p>\nThe week-long development programme provided access to world-class coaching in sport psychology, short game, swing technique and Trackman data analysis.<\/p>\n
When asked about her feelings heading into the championship as the youngest player in the field, Barber admitted to a mix of emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely both excited and nervous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited because it\u2019s such a huge opportunity, but I am nervous because it\u2019s the biggest event I have ever played in.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccess for me would be playing confidently, sticking to my routines and enjoying the whole experience. If I do that, I will be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
She joins a strong New Zealand contingent of 10 players including top-ranked Kiwi Eunseo Choi (61 World Amateur Golf Ranking), who finished 13th at the 2025 championship, and Vivian Lu (103 WAGR), who will make her sixth WAAP appearance.<\/p>\n
Royal Wellington member Glenda Swan who has managed the Wellington interprovincial women\u2019s team has watched Barber develop over the past three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I saw when I saw her play was there were two things really that stood out, which was her focus and, just how far a 10-year-old could hit the ball. So you imagine three years on, right? Things have changed quite a lot. <\/p>\n
\u201cElise definitely sits in the top group for her age, and not just because of her ability, but also I think because she\u2019s tending to move her mindset, her work ethic, and also her willingness to learn. Those qualities, I think, you\u2019ll find really are what often separate the really good players from the truly special ones. But you know, we\u2019ve got to remember she is actually only 13 so she\u2019s been playing for seven years,\u201d Swan said.<\/p>\n
Barber she will also have the opportunity to play alongside and learn from the best players in the Asia-Pacific region including world No 11 Soomin Oh from the Republic of Korea, 2024 US Girls\u2019 Junior and US Women\u2019s Amateur champion Rianne Malixi of the Philippines and defending champion Jeneath Wong of Malaysia.<\/p>\n
The championship provides a life-changing pathway for the winner, who will earn starts in three major championships \u2013 the AIG Women\u2019s Open, The Amundi Evian Championship and the Chevron Championship \u2013 as well as the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur and The 123rd Women\u2019s Amateur Championship.<\/p>\n
Previous WAAP participants have gone on to claim five major championships in just eight years, highlighting the championship\u2019s role as a genuine stepping stone to professional success.<\/p>\n
The Women\u2019s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship runs from February 12-15 at Royal Wellington Golf Club, with the club targeting 10,000 spectators across the four days. Entry is free. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy Dad told me straight away and my mum was right there too. They were both super excited.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51973,74,7125,2300,71154,156365,682,18239,18836,18478,156364,5904,6276,18126,46612,1345,95399,4507,5812,3025,111,139,69,28243,6452,13572,15483,34592,9855,213,5163,142402,61,701,156363,52,5977,26179,2834],"class_list":["post-278435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-13yearold","tag-after","tag-amateur","tag-asia","tag-asiapacific","tag-barber","tag-being","tag-championship","tag-club","tag-course","tag-elise","tag-final","tag-gets","tag-golf","tag-golfer","tag-home","tag-invite","tag-late","tag-make","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offered","tag-opportunity","tag-pacific","tag-promising","tag-ready","tag-royal","tag-sports","tag-teen","tag-tees","tag-to","tag-tomorrow","tag-waap","tag-wellington","tag-which","tag-withdrawal","tag-womens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}