Singapore: Twelve of the top-140 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) will fly the flag for the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) in January’s fourth edition of the Patsy Hankins Trophy.
“We’re excited to have been able to bring together such a powerful team as we bid to regain the trophy,” said non-playing captain Joanne McKee of the line-up for the Solheim Cup-style match play event against the European Golf Association.
To be held at Al Hamra Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates from January 8-10, 2025, the APGC’s Patsy Hankins Trophy team features two players apiece from Hong Kong China, Japan, Korea and Thailand and one each from China, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, New Zealand.
McKee said: “All 12 players are outstandingly talented. Between them they’ve won dozens of trophies and the majority also have extensive experience of playing in professional tournaments.”
Six of the team are currently in the WAGR top-50 with a further three in the top-100.
Malaysian Mirabel Ting, sixth in the WAGR, is the highest-ranked player in the team. As well as winning five titles this year, Ting placed 12th on her LPGA Tour debut in the Maybank Championship in her home country last month.
Like Ting, Korean Oh Soo-min, 14th in the WAGR, has won five times this year, including being low individual at the Queen Sirikit Cup and the World Junior Girls’ Championship in Canada last month.
In 2024, China’s Ren Yijia, Hong Kong China’s Sophie Han and Thailand’s Eila Galitsky have all triumphed on women’s professional circuits against hardened Tour players.
As well as her victory in the Beijing Women’s Challenge on the China LPGA Tour, Ren won this year’s Buick China Junior Championship and had top-10s at The R&A Junior Open in Scotland and the Arnold Palmer Junior Invitational in America.
Han, meanwhile, savoured success at the China LPGA Tour’s Reignwood China LPGA Classic and also posted top-10s at the Queen Sirikit Cup and the IMG Academy Junior World Championship.
For Galitsky, winner of the 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific, there have been four top-five finishes on the Thailand LPGA Tour this year, including one victory. Stateside in 2024, she placed third in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and eighth in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Other members of the APGC team that have also triumphed this year are Mamika Shinchi and Arianna Lau.
Japan’s Shinchi won the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship and was runner-up in the Japan Women’s Amateur Championship, while Hong Kong China’s Lau topped the standings in the APGC Junior Girls’ Championship as well as the IMG Academy Junior World Championship and the Hong Kong Ladies Close Amateur.
Chinese Taipei’s Cindy Hsu Huai-chien, New Zealand’s Vivian Lu and Thai Suvichaya Vinichaitham have all enjoyed consistent performances on the US college circuit this year.
For Hsu, 44th in the WAGR, it’s been a continuation of the form she showed late last year when she beat the game’s best female amateurs at the 2023 World Amateur Team Championships for the Espirito Santo Trophy in Abu Dhabi, where she claimed low individual honours.
Lu, a stalwart of New Zealand’s Queen Sirikit Cup team for the past three years, has had three top-five finishes on the US college scene, while Singha Thailand Amateur Match Play champion Suvichaya’s highlights in 2024 include a top-20 finish in the Honda LPGA Thailand and third spot in the Windy City Collegiate Classic.
As well as winning the Maekyung Amateur this year, Jeong Min-seo was runner-up in the Korean Women’s Amateur and the Song Am Cup and third at the APGC Junior Girls, behind only Lau and Oh, whom she in joining in the Patsy Hankins Trophy line-up.
Completing the APGC team is Aira Nagasawa, the reigning Japan Junior champion and Kanto Women’s Amateur winner who’s also made the cut in three out of four Japan LPGA Tour events in which she’s competed this year.
One notable absentee from the APGC team is Rianne Malixi, winner of this year’s US Women’s Amateur and US Junior Girls’ titles and currently fourth in the WAGR.
At the start of 2024, Malixi of the Philippines also won the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs and gave her word to defend the title in 2025, next year’s tournament clashing directly with the Patsy Hankins Trophy.
Since the Patsy Hankins Trophy was launched in 2016, Yuka Saso, Hannah Green, Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul are among those who have represented Asia-Pacific.
Named after the respected late New Zealand golfing administrator Patsy Hankins, the first two editions of the Patsy Hankins Trophy were won by the Asia-Pacific in 2016 and 2018. Europe won for the first time last year in Spain.
Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Patsy Hankins Trophy Team 2025
(Nationality and World Amateur Golf Ranking as of November 13 in brackets)
Mirabel Ting (Malaysia, 6); Oh Soo-min (Korea, 14); Eila Galitsky (Thailand, 24); Mamika Shinichi (Japan, 43); Cindy Hsu Huai-chien (Chinese Taipei, 44); Suvichaya Vinichaitham (Thailand, 49); Arianna Lau (Hong Kong China, 62); Jeong Min-seo (Korea, 69); Vivian Lu (New Zealand, 88); Sophie Han (Hong Kong China, 117); Ren Yijia (China, 131); Aira Nagasawa (Japan, 137).
