Te Arai Links announced as 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship host venue

Te Arai Links' South Course will host the 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship. Photo / Ricky Robinson

One of New Zealand’s top-ranked golf courses is taking on its first big tournament with Te Arai Links announced as the 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship host venue.

Te Arai Links’ South Course, which opened in 2022, will stage the tournament from October 29 to November 1 next year for the best amateurs across the Asia-Pacific region.

The winner earns a spot in the US Masters and the Open Championship, if they retain their amateur status. Current Masters champion Rory McIlroy played the course last summer before claiming his first green jacket in April.

It will mark the second occasion New Zealand has hosted the AAC, after Royal Wellington Golf Club was the venue in 2017 when China’s Lin Yuxin won his first of two AAC titles.

“We are enormously proud to be hosting the AAC, Asia Pacific’s pre-eminent men’s amateur championship, in New Zealand again,” Golf New Zealand CEO Jeff Latch said.

“As well as providing an opportunity for our elite amateur golfers to compete with the best in the world on home soil, it also provides us with an opportunity to showcase New Zealand as a world-renowned golfing destination.

“I can think of no finer location for showcasing the pristine natural beauty of New Zealand than Te Arai Links.”

The 2025 edition of the AAC, hosted by the United Arab Emirates at The Majlis Course of Emirates Golf Club, is currently being broadcast in more than 190 countries, making the event the most televised amateur golf tournament in the world.

This presents an opportunity for New Zealand to showcase a property in Te Arai Links that has contributed to the country’s world-renowned reputation as a golfing destination.

Te Arai Links’ South Course, designed by Bill Core and Ben Crenshaw, has previously been ranked seventh in Golf.com’s Top 100 Asia Pacific list. The North Course opened in 2023 to similar impressive reviews.

Te Arai Links managing director Jim Rohrstaff said: “We are incredibly honoured to be hosting the Asia-Pacific Amateur at Te Arai Links in 2026. This is one of the top amateur tournaments in the world and run by some of the top organisations in golf.

“As a very young facility, this reiterates what a special place we have here in New Zealand.

“Having an event with the best amateur golfers in the Asia-Pacific region is going to be phenomenal against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. Our team, membership and the New Zealand golf community will be cheering on all of the amateurs that are privileged to qualify for the championship.”

The 2026 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship is being played at Royal Wellington Golf Club in February, which means the same country will host the region’s two premier amateur golf tournaments in the same year for the first time since Thailand in 2022, and for the fourth time in history.

The R&A chief executive Mark Darbon said: “We are delighted to be taking the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship back to New Zealand and to be staging it at Te Arai Links for the first time.

“Te Arai’s South Course is an exceptional venue and will provide a fantastic test of golf in a spectacular location. Our goal for the championship is to continue to inspire and develop the region’s most talented players and we look forward to another outstanding edition in 2026.”