Arjun Gupta to go up against world’s best at AAC

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Our Correspondent
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Arjun Gupta has the best local knowledge of the field on how to tackle the course at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, where he has played often.
Arjun Gupta has the best local knowledge of the field on how to tackle the course at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, where he has played often.

Dubai-based Arjun Gupta will be one of the top hopes of the Indian contingent at the 12th Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) which will be contested at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, November 3-6, 2021.

Even though Arjun is ranked 202nd in World Amateur Rankings (WAGR), he has the advantage of playing at a course, where he has been a regular since he is based in the UAE.

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The 17-year-old Indian, who was born and raised in Dubai, where his parents are based, has a unique edge over the rest of the field. He has the best local knowledge of the field on how to tackle the course at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, where he has played often.

Gupta won the Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship in December last year, which earned him a place in the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. He also participated in the U.S. Junior Amateurs this year and reached the round of 16.

The best finish by an Indian at the AAC was also by a Dubai-based Indian, Rayhan Thomas, who finished runner-up in 2018. So, if Arjun is hoping to go one better than Thomas, he will need to upset some of the biggest names in amateur golf.

The other five Indians in the fray for the AAC are 18-year-old Mysorean Aryan Roopa Anand, Pune lad, Rohan Dhole Patil, 21-year-old Panipat golfer, Shubham Jaglan, who is now playing college golf in the US, 16-year-old Hyderabad golfer, Milind Soni and 20-year-old Bengalorean Akshay Neranjan.

The Asia-Pacific Amateurs, which is one of the best-known amateur events, which offers a passage to the Masters at the Augusta National and The Open in UK, will also have some of the world’s leading young stars.

Leading them are Japan’s Keita Nakajima and China’s Yuxin Lin are two of the most compelling stories at this year’s event.

Nakajima will be entering the championship as the reigning No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), while the two-time AAC champion Lin aims to surpass 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama (2010, 11) and become the first player to win the title three times.

However, with the region attempting to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic which denied many players competitive action for a long period of time, the field will be hungry to make its mark in the Asia-Pacific region’s most integral amateur championship. And then there is the big motivation – a dream invitation to the 2022 Masters and the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.

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The 21-year-old becomes only the fourth active WAGR No. 1 player to compete in the AAC, joining Matsuyama, Japan’s Takumi Kanaya and Australia’s Curtis Luck. He took over as the top-ranked amateur in the world when Kanaya – his compatriot, best friend and 2018 AAC champion – turned professional.

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