Imagine having the best nine-hole stretch of your life tie a golf tournament from six shots back. Now imagine entering a slug-em-out, three-shot playoff after that comeback to decide the tournament … and winning.
And now imagine being 20-year-old Fifa Laopakdee, who did both of those things on Sunday at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship to claim a spot in the Masters and the Open Championship.
Yep, that really happened.
The drama began early on Sunday morning at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, the annual amateur golf tournament organized by Augusta National and the R&A, but nobody thought that Laopakdee would be at the center of it. The 20-year-old golfer from Thailand rose on Sunday morning in Dubai with a six-shot deficit to 16-year-old Japanese amateur Taisei Nagasaki, owner of the 54-hole scoring record at the APA.
The stakes were clear: The winner would earn an invite into the Masters and Open Championship.
But then play began, and it soon became clear that things would wind up closer than they appeared. Nagasaki struggled after a brilliant opening three days, bogeying five of his first nine holes to sink back to the rest of the field, while a host of other players started mounting a Sunday charge.
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Nagasaki rallied down the stretch, making birdies on two of his last three holes. But then, facing a five-footer for par on the last to win the event, disaster struck: Nagasaki missed the putt, putting him into a playoff with Laopakdee, who had birdied three of his last four.
Laopakdee’s red-hot finish would continue on each of the three playoff holes, where two straight birdies and a tucked approach on the third playoff hole put him in the driver’s seat.
After Nagasaki’s birdie putt on the last missed, Laopakdee was in the driver’s seat. He drained his five-footer for birdie and the celebration began, as he became the first Thai winner ever at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, paving his way into the Masters and Open Championship in 2026.
“It means the whole world to me,” Laopakdee said. “Being able to pull it off is just amazing and it was great battle. Shout out to Taisei for keeping such a hard job for me to close it out. It was amazing.”
With the win, Laopakdee will become the first player from Thailand to compete in the Masters as an Amateur.
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