Malaysia will be represented by four first-timers in the prestigious Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), which tees off tomorrow at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club in the United Arab Emirates.
Leading the Malaysian challenge is the nation’s current top-ranked amateur Khavish Varman Varadan, who is in his junior year at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The 21-year-old will be joined by Marcus Lim, age 19, who is also based in the United States and is in his sophomore at the Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, and two promising teenagers – 16-year old Nateeshvar Anatha Ganesh and Rizq Adam Rohizam who turns 16 on November 24.
Khavish has been in superb form recently on the US collegiate circuit, winning the Graeme McDowell Invitational in September with rounds of 69, 69 and 66, and following up with a T9 finish in the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate. In May, he won the PGA Works Collegiate Championship at TPC Sawgrass by seven strokes with birdies on five of his first eight holes in the last round. Other notable performances by Khavish this year include a T53 in a professional event, the Korn Ferry Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship in July, and qualifying for the matchplay stage of the prestigious US Amateur at Oakmont Country Club.
“I am definitely looking forward to competing in the Asia-Pacific Amateur. My ball-striking and short game have been very solid. I have not played the Dubai Creek course before but I know it has hosted a few European Tour tournaments, so I’m really looking forward to playing here,” said Khavish, who is currently ranked a career-high 175th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Created in 2009 by the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), the Masters Tournament and The R&A, the AAC was established to further develop amateur golf in the region. The champion receives an invitation to compete in the Masters Tournament and The Open, while the runner(s)-up gain a place in Final Qualifying for The Open.
In the field this week is the worlds’ top-ranked amateur Keita Nakajima of Japan, who will be keen to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, two-time AAC winner (2010 and 2011) and reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama. Defending champion Yuxin Lin of China meanwhile is hoping to become the first player in the history of the championship to win the title for a third time after his success in New Zealand in 2017 and Shanghai in 2019.
Opened in 1993, Dubai Creek’s Championship Course is a par-71 layout originally designed by Karl Litten before its redesign in 2004 led by Thomas Bjorn. The course has previously hosted the 1999 and 2000 Dubai Desert Classic and the Mena Tour’s Dubai Creek Open, where 2018 AAC runner-up Rayhan Thomas shot a course-record 61 in 2017.
Over the AAC’s 12-year history, the championship has served as a springboard for some of the world’s top players including Matsuyama, Australia’s Cameron Smith, Korean Kim Si-woo, Thailand’s Jazz Janewattanond and Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan who won the bronze medal at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
For more information, visit AACgolf.com
