FAR HILLS, N.J. – U.S. Amateur runner-up Oliver Goss, of Australia, and defending champion Tianlang Guan of the People’s Republic of China are among the notable players entered in the 2013 Asia-Pacific Amateur, which begins Thursday at Nanshan International Golf Club in China.
The competition is sanctioned by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, The R&A and Augusta National Golf Club. All four rounds of the 72-hole, stroke-play competition, which awards a berth to the 2014 Masters to the champion, will be televised by ESPN2. Coverage begins at 2:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday. The second round can also be seen at 2:30 a.m. on Friday, with coverage of the final two rounds starting at 4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Goss, a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, lost in the U.S. Amateur championship match to Matthew Fitzpatrick at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., 4 and 3. He is currently No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and has already secured a likely invitation to the Masters with his runner-up finish.
Guan, at 14, became the youngest player in Masters history this April and was the only amateur to make the 36-hole cut.
Also in the field is Brady Watt of Australia, a semifinalist at the 2013 U.S. Amateur and the ninth-ranked player in the WAGR, and two-time U.S. Open qualifier Cheng-Tsung Pan of Chinese Taipei, a junior at the University of Washington, a two-time U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist and the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 4 in WAGR.
Besides the Masters invitation, the champion also receives an exemption into next year’s U.S. Amateur at the Atlanta Athletic Club as well as an exemption out of local qualifying for the 2014 U.S. Open. The champion and runner-up receive spots into Final International Qualifying for the 2014 British Open.
David Shefter is a senior writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.