Five players will represent the UAE at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Golf Championship in Dubai next October.
Dubai(News Desk):: In a historic first for Dubai, five Emirati golfers will participate in the 16th edition of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, which will be held at the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club from October 23 to 26, 2025. The UAE will be represented in the tournament by Ahmed Skaik, Sam Mullan, Jonathan Selvaraj, Abdullah Kalbat, and Rayan Ahmed.
The tournament was launched in 2009 at the initiative of the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation ( APGC). ) In cooperation with the R Association & A The Masters Championship aims to support and develop amateur golf in the region. This year’s winner will receive a wildcard to participate in the 2026 Masters Championship, in addition to a direct exemption from qualifying for the 154th British Open Championship. The runner-up will also receive a qualifying card for The Open, while the top three finishers will secure qualification for the 131st Amateur Championship.
Ahmed Skaik is no stranger to the tournament, participating this year for the sixth time in his career. His most notable achievement was reaching the “cut” in the 2021 edition, held at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, becoming the second Emirati player to achieve this feat after Ahmed Al-Musharkh in 2011 in Singapore. His national team teammate, Rayan Ahmed, continued to make history last year in his debut at the Taihei Championship in Japan, after successfully clearing the cut, becoming the third Emirati player to achieve this feat. He received special congratulations from the President of Augusta National Club, Fred Ridley, and the Vice President of the Emirates Golf Federation, Major General Abdullah Al Hashimi.
Abdullah Kalbat made his debut in the tournament last year, while Sam Mullan and Jonathan Selvaraj are preparing for their home debuts this year.
For his part, Ahmed Skaik said: “Participating in a tournament of this magnitude on home soil is an exceptional experience for me. I know the Majlis Golf Course well, as it is one of the most prominent golf courses that has hosted elite international golf stars. I am delighted to be returning to it to compete in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, and I am confident that my colleagues share this feeling.”In addition to the UAE quintet, 116 players out of 120 slots have confirmed their participation so far, representing 41 other member countries of the Asia Pacific Golf Association. Among them are Australia’s Harry Takis, 2024 Chinese runner-up Zhiqin Zhou, Kent Xiao of Chinese Taipei, Jeffrey Chen of Hong Kong, and Raihan Latif of Indonesia, along with Japan’s Taisei Nagasaki, Taishi Muto, and Rintaro Nakano, as well as Thailand’s Viva Laupakdee, Ratchanon “TK” Chantananowt, and Chanachon Chokprajakshat. Four countries have shared the championship’s titles throughout its history: China (five titles), Australia and Japan (four each), and South Korea (two).
The event will also see a wide participation from Middle Eastern players, including Musa Shana’a, Mohammed Al-Rawashdeh, Salem Al-Abdallat, and Hashem Shana’a from Jordan, Azzan Al-Rumaihi and Ahmed Al-Wahaibi from Oman, Saleh Ali Al-Kaabi and Ali Abdullah Al-Shahrani from Qatar, and Ali Al-Sakha and Khaled Saud Al-Faisal from Saudi Arabia.
Major General Abdullah Al Hashimi, Vice Chairman of the Emirates Golf Federation, praised the level of participation, stressing that the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship has become a leading platform for discovering the most promising talents in golf, both regionally and internationally.He added: “The current edition holds special significance with the participation of five UAE players on home soil, which gives them a valuable opportunity to interact with elite players from Asia and the Pacific, and motivates the new generation of Emirati talent to continue developing and highlighting the country’s progress in this sport.”
He concluded by saying, “We are confident that this year’s championship will mark a historic milestone in the history of golf in the UAE and the region.”
Among the tournament’s most prominent past participants are Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, who won the title twice, along with Australia’s Cameron Smith, the 2022 Open champion. Over the course of 15 years, the tournament has been a launching pad for a number of international stars, including Takumi Kanaya (2018) and Keita Nakajima (2021) from Japan, Smith, Cameron Davis, and Min-Woo Lee from Australia, Ryan Fox from New Zealand, Kim Se-Woo from South Korea, and C.T. Pan from Chinese Taipei. Previous participants in the tournament have succeeded He has won 33 PGA Tour titles and more than 140 major professional tour titles around the world.
This year, Dubai is hosting the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship for the first time in its history, at the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club. Designed by Carl Litten in 1988 as the first grass course in the Middle East, the course is one of the region’s most prominent sporting destinations, located south of downtown Dubai and overlooking its iconic skyline. The Majlis Course annually hosts the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic, which has seen champions such as Sephy Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Ernie Els, who holds the course’s record with a 61. In 2020, Australian Lucas Herbert won the tournament, becoming the first former Asia-Pacific Amateur participant to win the Dubai Desert Classic.
