Australians Min Woo Lee, Shae Wools-Cobb and Grace Kim have each been selected to represent the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation next week in Qatar.
Kim, 17, of Sydney will join 11 teammates to defend the Patsy Hankins Trophy against the European women’s team at the Doha Golf Club from 8-10 March.
The Aussie men will play for the Bonallack Trophy at the same venue, trying to win back the trophy retained by Europe in Portugal two years ago.
Wools-Cobb, 22, of the Sunshine Coast, and Lee, 19, of Perth, will be key parts of a talented men’s team seeking Asia-Pacific’s first win in the biennial event since 2004 in Italy.
The men’s Asia-Pacific team will be coached by Adelaide’s Gareth Jones and have for the second time as its captain Melbourne’s Matt Cutler, who said he was “excited” by his team’s prospects.
“I am very happy with the men’s team we have selected. We have a group of players that thoroughly deserve to represent our region and I know will give their all in the matches with Europe,” Cutler said.
“I think the women’s team will also pack a punch. They did really well in the inaugural Patsy Hankins Trophy two years ago to keep Europe at bay and we again have a talented group assembled to defend the title.”
The events, played concurrently feature two sessions of team play – five foursomes matches each morning and five fourball matches each afternoon – on each of the first two days, then a day of 12 singles matches to finish on the third.
The winners of the respective trophies will be determined by the most cumulative matches won.
Lee and Wools-Cobb, who both figured prominently in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Wellington last year, bring good form to Qatar.
Lee, who won the United States Junior Championship in 2016 and in 2017 was runner-up at the Australian Amateur, recently made the quarter-finals of the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia’s World Super 6 Perth, co-sanctioned by both the Asian and European tours.
Wools-Cobb won the Northern Territory Amateur in 2016 and was a semi-finalist at the 2018 Australian Amateur in Perth in January.
They will be part of a quality squad including Indian sensation Rayhan Thomas, outstanding Japanese pair Takumi Kanaya and Kazuya Osawa and former Australian Junior champion Daniel Hillier, of New Zealand, where he also won his national amateur championship last year. No fewer than 10 of the men’s team are ranked in the top 100 of the world amateur standings.
Kim, who recently made her debut on the LPGA Tour’s ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, is the reigning Australian Junior and SA Women's Amateur champion. The Avondale member also played in last week’s inaugural Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific championship in Singapore, won by another member of next week's team, the Thai prodigy Atthaya Thitikul.
ASIA PACIFIC TEAMS
Patsy Hankins Trophy
Grace Kim (Australia)
Liu Wenbo (China)
Du Mohan (China)
Ya-Chun Chang (Chinese Taipei)
Yu-Chiang Hou (Chinese Taipei)
Yuna Nishimura (Japan)
Riri Sadoyama (Japan)
Seo-yun Kwon (Korea)
Hae-ran Ryu (Korea)
Yuka Saso (Philippines)
Paphangkorn Tavatanakit (Thailand)
Atthaya Thitikul (Thailand)
Bonallack Trophy
Min Woo Lee (Australia)
Shae Wools-Cobb (Australia)
Rayhan Thomas (India)
Takumi Kanaya (Japan)
Kazuya Osawa (Japan)
Jaemin Han (Korea)
Dong-min Kim (Korea)
Daniel Hillier (New Zealand)
Lloyd Jefferson Go (Philippines)
Gregory Foo (Singapore)
Sadom Keawkanjana (Thailand)
Kammalas Namuangruk (Thailand)