Duc Son Nguyen and Khanh Hung Le join 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship  03:36, 24/09/2025

Vietnam’s challenge in the region’s premier men’s amateur golf Championship will be led by Duc Son Nguyen, the 2024 Vietnam National Championship winner, and Khanh Hung Le, who earned the nation’s first gold medal in golf at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games. 

Created in 2009, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship was established by the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC), The R&A and the Masters Tournament to further develop amateur golf in the Asia-Pacific region. The champion will receive an invitation to the 2026 Masters Tournament and an exemption into The 154th Open; the runner(s)-up will receive an exemption into The Open Qualifying Series; the top-three finishers will receive an exemption into The 131st Amateur Championship.

Duc Son, 18, will be making his second appearance in the Asia-Pacific Amateur where he had missed the cut at Taiheiyo Club in Japan last year. He is rated amongst the top amateurs in the country following victories in the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final and the national championship last season.

“It’ll be special to represent Vietnam in such a prestigious tournament and I’m looking forward to it,” said the Hanoi-based Duc Son. 

Vietnam’s best finish in the Asia-Pacific Amateur was a tied seventh finish by Nguyen Anh Minh in 2023 and Duc Son is allowing himself to dream of hoisting the coveted trophy in Dubai and punch his ticket to the Masters and The Open in 2026.

“It would be a great honour (to win) for my country. It’ll be a historic milestone and serve as an inspiration to other junior golfers in Vietnam. Playing in in the Masters and The Open is every golfer’s dream. This is a great motivation. When I started to take up golf serious in early 2015, it was the year Jordan Spieth won both the Masters and The Open, and he is my favourite player. I tell myself that I need to practice hard and do everything I need to do to be like him. That’s my dream,” said Duc Son.  

Khanh Hung, 17, finished tied 24^th in his first appearance at the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur, the same year he wrote a slice of golf history with a gold medal feat in the regional games when he was 15 years old. Khanh Hung’s other notable achievements include being a member of the victorious Vietnamese team at the 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur Team Golf Championship - Nomura Cup and being a member of the International Team at the Junior Presidents Cup in Canada last year.

“It’s the biggest amateur championship in Asia-Pacific and it’ll be a pleasure to be in Dubai,” said Khanh Hung, who is attending high school near Orlando, U.S and has already accepted a place in University of Illinois next year.

 “I just wish to have a good time and to be the best version of myself every single day no matter how the result may be. Every junior golfer will watch the majors. It is every player’s dream to be there. Just to have the opportunity to play in the Asia-Pacific Amateur and have a shot to play in two of the biggest majors is very big for our region. 

“I remember the first time I watched the Masters was in 2019. I was really young, golf was just a hobby then and I spent the whole Sunday with my dad watching Tiger (Woods) win that year. I didn’t know much about Tiger then, but it was special. He was emotional, everyone was emotional and it was cool to see.”

The young talent will take it one shot at a time when he tees up at Emirates Golf Club and knows a win by a Vietnamese golfer will go a very long way to accelerate the development of golf in his country. “It (winning) would mean a lot to me and my country … it will definitely happen in Vietnam one day. There are a lot of good junior golfers, golf is progressing and the support is strong. I have a lot of belief in Vietnam golf,” said Khanh Hung.

Players from 41 APGC member organizations have accepted invitations with 120 players confirmed thus far for the 120-player field. The field is highlighted by Harry Takis of Australia, 2024 runner-up Ziqin Zhou of China, Kent Hsiao of Chinese Taipei, Jeffrey Shen of Hong Kong, China, Rayhan Latief of Indonesia, Taisei Nagasaki, Taishi Moto and Rintaro Nakano of Japan, and Fifa Laopakdee, Ratchanon “TK” Chantananuwat and Chanachon Chokprajakchat of Thailand. Representatives from four countries have claimed titles at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, including China with five victories, Australia and Japan with four each and the Republic of Korea with two. 

Notable past competitors include 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, a two-time winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith. Over the Championship’s 15-year history, the Championship has served as a springboard to some of the world’s top players, including Matsuyama, 2018 champion Takumi Kanaya and 2021 champion Keita Nakajima of Japan, Smith, Cameron Davis and Min Woo Lee of Australia, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, the Republic of Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan. Collectively, alumni of the Asia-Pacific Amateur have gone on to win 33 tournaments on the PGA Tour to date and more than 140 events across major professional tours.

As the host nation, the United Arab Emirates are projected to have five representatives in the field led by 17-year-old Abdulla Kalbat and five-time participant Ahmad Skaik. 

Designed by Karl Litten and established in 1988 as the first grass course in the Middle East, Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis Course is located south of downtown Dubai and enjoys views of the city’s skyline. The Majlis Course annually serves as the host of the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic, an event won by the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Ernie Els, the latter of which owns the course record of 61. Australia’s Lucas Herbert won the Dubai Desert Classic in 2020 to become the first alum to win the event five years after his final appearance at the Asia-Pacific Amateur. Emirates Golf Club will host the Asia-Pacific Amateur for the first time.