Antonio Murdaca, who will be defending the title he won in such brilliant fashion on home soil at Royal Melbourne in Australia last year, will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Hideki Matsuyama, in winning more than one Asia-Pacific amateur crown. The young Japanese star, who has risen into the top-20 of the world rankings after enjoying a fruitful past two seasons playing on the PGA Tour, triumphed at the 2010 and 2011 championships, which were held in his homeland and Singapore respectively.
The Asia-Pacific Amateur is the world's most televised amateur golf tournament, and in Clearwater Bay, the massive global audience are going to be in for a visual treat. The tournament is always staged at first-class venues, but with the crashing waves of the South China Sea and the impressive Kowloon cityscape forming the background at many of the holes here, it is no exaggeration to suggest that Clearwater Bay could prove to be the most dramatic and exciting of venues in the tournament's seven-year history.
Local knowledge has proved vital in previous championships, and Hong Kong's (at the time of press) six representatives - Matthew Cheung, Leon D'Souza, Motin Yeung, Oliver Roberts, Shinichi Mizuno and Michael Regan Wong - will be raring to put on a show for the host nation. Could one of our local amateur stars spring a surprise and come out on top of the highly fancied Korean, Japanese, Australian and Chinese contingent? Could there be a Hong Kong player at the 2016 Masters Tournament? Nothing can be ruled out over the course of the 72-hole event, and if one of the six manages it, you'll want to ensure you were there when it happened. Not that anyone should require further encouragement to attend but spectator entry to the event is free.
For more information on the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship, visit www.aacgolf.com
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