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Championships
Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific stars who rose to very top of the game
02 Feb 26
6 mins
From multiple major winners to world number ones, the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship has been a springboard for some of the biggest names in the game.
Jeeno Thitikul, the planet’s top ranked player, won the inaugural Championship as a 15-year-old following a tense play-off at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore in 2018. Future two-time US Women’s Open winner Yuka Saso was involved in that play-off contest, while Patty Tavatanakit finished in the top-20 to underline her own credentials as a rising star. Thitikul’s triumph, and the outstanding skill and talent on display that week, set the tone for what would become one of the most coveted amateur titles in golf, while paving the way for the region’s most talented players to follow. Ahead of the Championship's eighth staging - at Royal Wellington, New Zealand from 12 to 15 February 2026 - we take a look at some of the biggest names to have starred at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific since it began in 2018.Jeeno Thitikul
The world’s top ranked player had already broken records in the game by the time she had arrived in Singapore for the inaugural Championship. The previous summer, aged 14, she became the youngest player to win a professional golf tournament with victory in Ladies European Thailand Championship as an amateur. Success at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific six months later was further evidence she was destined for the top.
Jeeno Thitikul won the inaugural Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific.
Another record fell when in 2018 and 2019 she became the only player to have won the Smyth Salver, awarded to the best placed amateur at the AIG Women’s Open, outright in back-to-back years.
Since moving into the professional ranks she has risen to the very top of the game, reaching world number one while landing seven LPGA Tour titles, a Rolex Player of the Year award and a flurry of top-five major finishes.
Yuka Saso
Saso was involved in the four-way play-off eventually won by Thitikul at the Championship’s first staging. And, like that year’s winner, Saso would go on to achieve big things in the years to follow, quickly racking up two major titles early in her career. She earned her first US Women’s Open aged 19 in 2021 before winning it for a second time at Lancaster County Club in 2024. That triumph, which was secured with an outstanding run of four birdies in five holes down the stretch, meant she became the youngest player to lift the trophy twice. The 24-year-old has a further two wins on the LPGA Tour of Japan, and two additional top-five results in the majors.
Yuka Saso is now a double major winner.
Patty Tavatanakit
Another player who impressed at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific before going on to achieve big things in the game. Fourth months after starring at the inaugural Championship, and while still an amateur, she finished fifth at the 2018 US Women’s Open. She has since enjoyed top-ten finishes in each of the majors. Tavatanakit recorded the biggest triumph of her career at The Chevron Championship in 2021, one year after turning professional. In finishing two clear of Lydia Ko she became the first rookie to win the event in almost four decades.Ayaka Furue
At the second staging of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific, Furue finished in a tie for seventh place as fellow Japanese player Yuka Yasuda won the main prize. While Furue impressed that week without lifting the trophy, she did begin adding titles at an impressive rate. Eight wins in three years on the LPGA Tour of Japan would follow along with an LPGA Tour success on the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open in 2022. And then – two years later, in July 2024 – she eagled the 72nd hole to complete a late surge and win the Amundi Evian Championship, her first major, in dramatic fashion.
Ayaka Furue is among those to have risen to the top of the game after competing at the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific.