Ten teams were present at Bombay Presidency Golf Club in India in 1998.
The Opening ceremony.
T he 3rd decade of the Queen Sirikit Cup also began in New Zealand where the first-ever playoff for the team title between host country New Zealand and new-comer Chinese Taipei was witnessed when both teams were tied at the scores of 436. It was also here that the biggest galleries of spectators turned up to support the event and their home team. After an exciting playoff, New Zealand team succeeded in pleasing the crowd and won the team title, while Chinese Taipei’s Wei Yun Jye captured the best individual title.
The 22nd and 23rd championships were played in Taiwan and Hong Kong where Australia came back to win both events. The first-ever playoff for individual title was recorded here in Hong Kong in 2001 when Australia’s Rebecca Stevenson beat Kim Joo Mi of Korea after they were tied at 214. The most exciting championship was in 2002 when the 24th tournament was hosted in Malaysia, where both the team and individual titles had to be decided by sudden-death playoff. After 3 rounds at A’Famosa Golf Resort, both Japan and Korea were tied with a new low record of 419 total, while Japan’s Ai Miyazato and Chinese Taipei’s Hung Chin-Huei were both locked in also the new low record total of 207 for the individual title. In the playoff, Hung Chin-Huei clinched the individual title after she birdied the first play-off hole. It took two more holes for Miyazato to regain herself and helped Japan team win the Cup for the 6th time from Korea.
The 25th Queen Sirikit Cup which was the silver anniversary of the championship was celebrated in Korea in 2003 and Singapore rejoined the tournament after 7 years’ withdrawal. Korea team braved the bad weather conditions and benefited from home advantage to win the 8th title by a wide margin from defending champion Japan.
When the 26th edition was hosted by China for the second time in 2004, the R&A came forward to give financial grant to help subsidize the teams’ accommodation expenses. The recognition given by the R&A was based on the achievements of the Queen Sirikit Cup Championship in promoting the standard of ladies golf in the Asia-Pacific region and was a result of the timely recommendation made by the Executive Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, Dato Thomas M.L. Lee of Malaysia.
The Indian ladies who helped to organize the 20th Queen Sirikit Cup.
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Korea team captured the 7th Cup in India. |
During the championship, the Wuyi Forum was conducted to gather ideas and information from member associations on the direction of ladies golf in the region. It was agreed by all concerned that professional golf would continue to play a significant role in the promotion of amateur golf. It would not only inspire the players to improve their skills, but also generate some income for the associations’ development program. Member associations were informed about the newly launched Ladies Asian Golf Tour that could provide a great learning experience for the top amateurs and arrangement was initiated by the Queen Sirikit Cup’s Secretariat to have the individual winner invited to play in one event each year with some subsidy from the Secretariat.
Korea again won the 26th Queen Sirikit Cup in China for the 9th
time with the scores of 432 while host China came second at 434 and Thailand finished her best since 1982 in 3rd place at 439. |
