Tag: Lukas Michel

Crowded leaderboard at Asia-Pacific Amateur includes defending champ, world No. 1, past USGA champ

It doesn’t take long to find the favorites in this Asia-Pacific Amateur field. Just look at the top.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

It doesn’t take long to find the favorites in this Asia-Pacific Amateur field. After the first round at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, they’re all crowded at the top. In all, seven players share the first-round lead, and at least three of those men stick out.

World No. 1 amateur Keita Nakajima of Japan and two-time AAC winner Yuxin Lin of China – also the defending champion from his 2019 victory – were paired together for Wednesday’s opening round in Dubai and both walked away with a 4-under 67. Australian Lukas Michel, winner of the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur, also fired 67.

Sam Choi, Alexander Yang, Jimmy Zheng and Wooyoung Cho also had 67.

Lin, who plays for Florida, and Nakajima had never played together, but Lin didn’t buy into any talk of a rivalry between them during a big week when a Masters invitation is at stake for the winner.

“Obviously everyone is trying to win the tournament,” he said. “For me, I’m not really trying to compete with anyone else. Just trying to play the best golf that I can and the results should be good.”

Yuxin Lin, Asia-Pacific Amateur
Yuxin Lin of China lines up a putt during Round 1 of the 2021 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by AAC)

Interestingly, both men stumbled at the start. Lin bogeyed his first hole, a par 4, while Nakajima birdied it. But Nakajima’s hand slipped on his driver at the next hole, and his tee shot sailed out of bounds to set up a double bogey.

“I had a good birdie at first hole, so I believe that I can make more birdies,” Nakajima said of recovering from an early big number.

The two men combined for 10 birdies over the next 11 holes.

Zheng, a sophomore at Duke, is the only New Zealander in the field of 93 players.

“I’m sure they will be happy to see that I’m at the top of the leaderboard, and I am happy having them cheer me on this week,” Zheng said of wearing his country’s colors.

Zheng eagled the fourth hole, a par 5, after setting up a 25-footer with a hybrid approach. His back nine included three birdies and no bogeys.

Yang, a freshman at Stanford who is representing Hong Kong this week, eagled the fourth as well as the 13th, another par 5. He closed with two birdies as the wind picked up.

“I had good shots all the way in starting on 17 tee,” he said. “I hit driver, which is aggressive but it set me up with a good look at the green and made a putt there. Same thing on 18, good drive on the fairway and hit the shot to about 10 feet and made it.”

Michel, the Mid-Am champ who competed in the 2020 Masters courtesy of that win, had five birdies and only a single bogey.

Add Jun Min Lee to the highlight reel for an impromptu dip he took at the par-4 second. Lee, of South Korea, feel backward into the water attempting to hit a shot and then had to go back in to retrieve his club.

“It was a poor tee shot and poor layup and I was stuck behind the rocks and I was trying to get it out in the front right of the green or front right fringe and I was like, man, I’ve got a stance, I’ve got this, I’ve got this,” he said. “So, I’m over it, I’m over it, getting ready, hit the shot and next thing I know, I throw my club and I’m falling back, ball is in the water. Overall, it’s a pretty eventful start to the day on hole 2!”

He walked away with a quadruple bogey there and despite spending much of the day squelching around the course in soaking shoes and clothes, recovered for a 2-over 73 that left him only six shots back.

[listicle id=778175210]

The Azalea Amateur will still offer a Masters tune-up, but also a place for top collegians to play

The Azalea Amateur moved back seven months because of COVID but has still drawn a top field, including a pair of Masters invitees.

The Azalea Amateur is typically a late-March affair at the Country Club of Charleston (South Carolina). Lukas Michel, the reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champ, originally planned to use it as a warm-up for the April Masters. That plan, like everything else in 2020, went out the window mid-March when the Masters was postponed.

The Azalea now will be played Oct. 29-Nov. 1. Michel will still be there, and so will a collection of the top amateurs and collegians in the game.

After the Masters announcement, the 26-year-old returned home to Australia, where his golf game endured weeks of COVID shut-downs. The next time Michel played stateside was the U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes. He hadn’t touched a club for a week before that and had to get a special visa to remain in the U.S. these past three months.

“It was all very complicated,” he said of figuring out those details. “It would have been easy just to skip the U.S. Am but I wanted to play that at Bandon Dunes, such a cool course. And it was a good experience.”

Tee times: Azalea Invitational

In addition to the U.S. Amateur, where he missed the cut, Michel played the U.S. Open at Winged Foot last month. After the next few days at the Country Club of Charleston, Michel plans for his final Masters tune-up to take place at Pinehurst.

“Do a little bit of prep there, which should be a good spot to work on my game,” he said.

Michel’s caddie, friend and fellow U.S. Mid-Am competitor Will Davenport, is also teeing it up at the Country Club of Charleston. Davenport picked up the bag for Michel midway through the U.S. Mid-Am after he bowed out himself, and now will carry it at Augusta National.

Two other Masters competitors are also in the Azalea field: Abel Gallegos, the 2020 Latin America Amateur champion. Gallegos already played the Junior Orange Bowl, Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the U.S. in 2020. USC’s Yuxin Lin, winner of the 2019 Asia-Pacific Amateur, is also playing.

Aside from those three names, here are five more to keep an eye on.

Tyler Strafaci

Did anyone author a better amateur summer than Strafaci? Take COVID craziness into consideration and Strafaci’s 2020 body of work is even more impressive. After victories at the North & South Amateur, Palmetto Amateur and U.S. Amateur, Strafaci could very realistically bag another title in Charleston.

Preston Summerhays

The 18-year-old owns a major summer amateur title of his own from the Sunnehanna Amateur, but he still splits his time between the amateur and junior circuits. Most recently, Summerhays finished sixth at the Junior Players Championship and ninth at the Ping Invitational. Sandwiched in between? A U.S. Open start (as the reigning U.S. Junior champion).

Todd White

The Country Club of Charleston is White’s territory. The Spartanburg, South Carolina, resident was an Azalea winner back in 2015 and tied for second in 2017. White doesn’t compete nationally quite as much as he used to, but the 52-year-old still stands in Walker Cup lore for playing a crucial role in a U.S. win in 2013 at National Golf Links.

Stephen Behr

Another formidable local. Behr, 27, was a second-team All-American at Clemson and a first-team All-ACC selection, and more recently was the stroke-play medalist at the 2018 U.S. Mid-Amateur – the first one of those for which he was eligible. Behr, who was born in Charleston but now resides in Atlanta, never turned professional, but don’t let that fool you about his game.

Aman Gupta

We all got to know Aman Gupta, a sophomore at Oklahoma State, in his run to the semifinals at the U.S. Amateur. The South Carolina native played only one major stroke-play event since, finishing 53rd at the Colonial Collegiate, but went 4-0 in Big 12 Match Play. It’s a bit of a shame there’s no head-to-head component at the Azalea.

[lawrence-related id=778070794,778069041,778066921]