New Zealander Cooper Moore: The Indian trio of Anshul Mishra (82-80), Arkesh Bhatia (85-81) and Ribhav Verma (79-88) missed the cut by a big margin at the halfway mark of the 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Te Arai Links’ South Course in New Zealand.
Handling the tough and windy conditions, the defending champion Fifa Laopakdee carded a one-over 72 on Friday in windy conditions to maintain his lead as sixty-two players made the 36-hole cut at 13-over-par 155.
The 21-year-old reigning champion, who posted an eight-under 63 on Thursday, leads New Zealander Cooper Moore by two strokes through 36 holes in his title defence.
“As you can see, it's a little windy,” laughed Laopakdee. “Overall, it was a grind out there for me. Had a great front nine, shot two under par, then back nine, just didn't make any putts. Got two 3‑putts and then coming down the stretch had a great chance of birdies, but I just missed all of them. But if you ask me, like, just all week, I would take seven under for the first two rounds, I would take it, definitely, and I think I'm in good position for the weekend.”
Laopakdee faltered with a bogey on his first hole, the par-4 10th, but rebounded with birdies at Nos. 12, 13 and 17 to solidify his lead. As the wind picked up later in the morning, Laopakdee sandwiched a birdie at the third hole with bogeys at Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 to fall back to seven under overall.
“The wind kind of picked up on the back nine, and it was tough for everyone, but Zack [Swanwick] played amazing on the nine,” said Laopakdee. “I had a lot of good chances to birdie on the back nine as well, but I didn't capitalise… I don't know if you guys saw the putts I had on the back nine today. Like that five‑footer, two holes in a row, ball just snapped 90 degrees.”
Laopakdee, the No. 31 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), won the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur in Dubai on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff. He went on to earn individual and team gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand last fall and make his debut in the Masters and The Open earlier this year.
His playing partner Swanwick, the No. 24 player in WAGR, carded the low round of the day at four-under 67. The New Zealander rose from T-25 after the first round to fourth and four shots back of Laopakdee.
Swanwick is joined near the top of the leaderboard by two other Kiwis: Moore (second/five under) and Ryan Xie (third/four under). Moore, an 18-year-old coming off of a run to the U.S. Junior Amateur semifinals this summer, birdied two of his last three holes to rise to solo-second.
His playing partner Swanwick, the No. 24 player in WAGR, carded the low round of the day at four-under 67. The New Zealander rose from T-25 after the first round to fourth and four shots back of Laopakdee.
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Article Source: IANS