Feeling there’s unfinished business at Augusta National is why defending champion Jasper Stubbs will chase another golden ticket to the Masters and Open Championship by competing at next month’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Japan.
The 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur will be held at the Taiheiyo Club in Gotemba from October 3-6.
Victorian Stubbs defeated China’s Wenyi Ding in a playoff at Asia-Pacific host Royal Melbourne last year, which clinched the winner’s prize of guaranteed entry into the next year’s Masters and Open (as long as the champion remains an amateur).
At age 22, Stubbs would not have been the first to turn professional in the month of August, immediately after a dream debut at Augusta in April and Royal Troon in July. But Stubbs wants another taste of the majors before any thoughts of joining the paid ranks. He knows he is capable of better scores than 80, 76 (Masters) and 80, 72 (Open) which led to missed cuts at both.
“I think for anyone in the world of golf, amateur or professional, any chance you’ve got to get to two majors, or a major, you definitely want to take that opportunity,” Stubbs told reporters during a conference call. “And having experienced it this year, I think I’ve got a little bit more of a taste of what it actually entails to play professional major championship level golf. I want to have that feeling again. So this is just another great opportunity to get me back there and, yeah, hopefully do a little better this time.”
Stubbs said he was still riding the highs and learning experiences of playing practice rounds with Adam Scott, Cameron Smith, and Jason Day at Augusta and Troon. “This year’s been pretty incredible; [winning the Asia-Pacific] was a goal of mine from the start of [2023] and to have that come to fruition in October was pretty cool. Then the fruits of my labour after that were pretty awesome with the two majors and they were some of the best experiences of my life.”
Runner up to Stubbs, amateur world No.4 Ding, confirmed to reporters on Tuesday that he will turn pro later this year even if he were to win the Asia-Pacific. Ding starred for the golf team at Arizona State University before leaving recently.
Stubbs headlines a seven-strong Australian team for this year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur, as well as Quinnton Croker from Royal Queensland, US college star Tony Chen, Billy Dowling, Phoenix Campbell, mid-amateur Lukas Michel and Connor Fewkes. Matt Ballard is the team coach.
If Stubbs were to win, he would join Hideki Matsuyama and Lin Yuxin as the only two-time winners of the Asia-Pacific Amateur. Matsuyama went on to win the 2021 Masters as a pro.
