Bangkok, Thailand: Thanks to his thrilling victory in the 13th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), Harrison Crowe has become the top-rated Australian in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
As well as securing starting spots in next year’s Masters Tournament and Open Championship, the rewards that go with winning the AAC, Crowe soared 16 spots in the WAGR to 27th.
It’s the first time the 21-year-old has broken into the top-30 and sees him overhaul fellow-AAC competitor Connor McKinney who fell two places to 29th.
Crowe, a New South Wales native who had been planning to join the professional ranks immediately after the tournament, will now wait until after the Masters and Open Championship.
Now he’s the fifth highest ranked player from the Asia-Pacific region behind only Taiga Semikawa, Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantanunawat, Ding Wenyi and Kosuke Suzuki.
The Japanese duo of Semikawa (number one) and Suzuki (19th) retain their positions from last week. Neither competed in the AAC at Amata Spring Country Club.
Thai 15-year-old Ratchanon, who dropped off the pace at the weekend in the AAC, has fallen two spots to 14th while China’s Ding, this year’s US Junior Amateur champion, remains 17th.
Ratchanon and Ding were among four players who tied for 13th on 282.
At the top of the leaderboard, Crowe outgunned China’s Bo Jin over the final nine holes to take the AAC title by one shot with a 13-under-par aggregate of 275.
Jin’s double-bogey at the par-three, 17th hole eventually ruined his chance of joining his elder brother as champion; Cheng Jin won the title in 2015.
Nonetheless, Jin, who was third in the 2021 AAC in Dubai, has climbed eight places on this week’s WAGR to 40th.
