The 2018 Amata Friendship Cup ( th, อมตะ เฟรนด์ชิพ คัพ 2018; ja, 2018年アマタフレンドシップカップ) was the first edition of the Amata Friendship Cup matches, held 21–23 December at the

Amata Spring Country Club The Amata Spring Country Club is a private golf and country club near to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. It hosts two high-profile golf tournaments which were introduced in 2006. The Royal Trophy is a team competition between Europe and Asia, and ...

Chonburi Chonburi ( th, ชลบุรี, , IAST: , ) is the capital of Chonburi Province and Mueang Chonburi District in Thailand. It is about 100 km southeast of Bangkok, on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. Its name means 'city of water'. Chonb ...

, Thailand. The Amata Friendship Cup is a team competition between the top mixed-gender professional and amateur golfers from

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is a three-day

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

event between teams of twelve players with a similar format to the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

and

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force beh ...

Boonchu Ruangkit Boonchu Ruangkit (born 12 May 1956) is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the Champions Tour. Early life As a young man, Boonchu tried for a career in kick boxing, but he gave it up after being knocked out cold in his third bout. He made hi ...

and Virada Nirapathpongporn captained the Thai team and

Naomichi Ozaki ) is a Japanese professional golfer. Professional career Ozaki was born in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. He turned professional in 1977 and won 32 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour between 1984 and 2005. He ranks fourth on the list of most ...

and

Miho Koga is a feminine Japanese given name and a masculine Croatian name. It can have many different meanings in Japanese depending on the kanji used. Possible Japanese writings Miho can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *実穂, " ...

captained the Japanese team. Team Thailand won by a score of 15–13.

Format

The Amata Friendship Cup is a

event, with each match worth one point. The format is as follows: *Day 1 (Friday): Four foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and four fourball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session. *Day 2 (Saturday): Four foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and four fourball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session. *Day 3 (Sunday): 12 singles matches. All 12 players from each team participate.

Teams

Each team consisted of five male professionals, five female professionals, one male and one female amateur.

Team Thailand

Team Japan

Day one

''Friday, 21 December 2018''

Morning foursomes

The opening round of four fourball matches started at 7:15 am

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

. The first point of the 2018 Amata Friendship Cup was won by Team Japan, with

Ryuko Tokimatsu is a Japanese professional golfer. Tokimatsu plays on the Japan Golf Tour and the Japan Challenge Tour. He had one win on each tour in 2016. Tokimatsu made his debut on American soil at the 2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, having qualified ...

and

Erika Hara Erika may refer to: Arts and Entertainment * Hayasaka Erika (''Megatokyo)'' * Erika (''Friends'') * Erika (''Pokémon'') * Erika (''Underworld'') * Erika Itsumi ''(Girls und Panzer)'' * ''Erika'' (film), a 1971 Italian thriller film * "E ...

winning 6 & 5 against

Prayad Marksaeng Prayad Marksaeng ( th, ประหยัด มากแสง; born 30 January 1966) is a Thai professional golfer. Career Prayad was a member of Thailand's winning golf team at the 1987 South East Asian Games and turned professional in 1991. ...

and

Moriya Jutanugarn Moriya Jutanugarn ( th, โมรียา จุฑานุกาล; ; born 28 July 1994) is a Thai professional golfer. In 2009, Jutanugarn became the first female to win the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy. In 2013, she was named LPGA ...

Prom Meesawat Prom Meesawat (born 21 July 1984) is a Thai professional golfer. He won his age group at the World Junior Golf Championships in 1997 and 2002 and was Asia Pacific Junior Champion several times. He won the Thailand Open Amateur Championship in 2 ...

and Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras came from two down after the fourth and fifth hole to beat

Masahiro Kawamura is a Japanese professional golfer, who plays on the European Tour, Japan Golf Tour and the Asian Tour. Kawamura won his first title in 2013 at the Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open on the Japan Golf Tour, a tournament also co-sanctioned by the Asia ...

and

Mami Fukuda Mami may refer to: People *Cheb Mami, Algerian raï singer *Mami (given name), a Japanese feminine given name * Mami (goddess), a goddess in the Babylonian epic ''Atra-Hasis'' *Mami Wata, a pantheon of ancient water spirits or deities Entertainmen ...

two up. Jaidee and

Thidapa Suwannapura Thidapa "Jasmine" Suwannapura (; born 20 November 1992) is a Thai professional golfer. A Ramkhamhaeng University graduate, she qualified for the Honda LPGA Thailand as an amateur in 2006, 2008 and 2010. She is the winner of the 2008 Hong Kong Lad ...

also won by one against

Kodai Ichihara is a Japanese professional golfer who plays on the Japan Golf Tour. Ichihara had his first win on the tour in June 2018, the Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup Shishido Hills. Previously his best finish is T-2 at the 2016 Gateway ...

and

Sakura Koiwai (born 15 April 1998) is a Japanese professional golfer. She plays on the LPGA of Japan Tour where she has eight victories. Career Koiwai was born in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido in 1998 and started playing golf when she was 8 years old. She won the ...

one up. In the last match, Aphibarnrat and Thitikul won the seventeenth hole to halve

Satoshi Kodaira is a Japanese professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and Japan Golf Tour. While playing on the Japan Golf Tour, Kodaira has had seven victories, including two Japan Golf Tour majors, the 2013 Japan Golf Tour Championship Shishido Hills a ...

and

Yuri Yoshida (born 17 April 2000) is a Japanese professional golfer and LPGA Tour player. She won three times on the LPGA of Japan Tour 2021–2023. Early life and amateur career Yoshida had a successful amateur career and in 2018 she won both the Japan Jun ...

, and to end the first morning 2–1 in favour of Team Thailand.

Afternoon four-ball

The afternoon session was won by team Thailand. It started at 12:00 pm

Jazz Janewattananond Atiwit "Jazz" Janewattananond ( th, อติวิชญ์ "แจ๊ส" เจนวัฒนานนท์, born 26 November 1995) is a Thai professional golfer who plays on both the Asian and European Tours. Professional career Janewatta ...

and

Pornanong Phatlum Pornanong Phatlum ( th, พรอนงค์ เพชรล้ำ; born 4 December 1989) is a Thai professional golfer playing on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. Professional wins (21) Ladies Asian Golf Tour wins (9) ^ ''Co-sanctioned by the La ...

won 3 & 2 over

Hideto Tanihara is a Japanese professional golfer. He has won 17 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour. Professional career Tanihara has won 14 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour and featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. His highest ranking ...

and

Nasa Hataoka is a Japanese professional golfer. She has won six times on the LPGA Tour and six times on the LPGA of Japan Tour. Amateur career Hataoka was born on 13 January 1999, named after the United States space program, NASA. As an amateur, she won the ...

and

Ariya Jutanugarn Ariya Jutanugarn ( th, เอรียา จุฑานุกาล, , ; born 23 November 1995) is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the American-based LPGA Tour. She was born in Bangkok. She is the first golfer, male or female, from Tha ...

won the last hole to halve

and

Fumika Kawagishi Fumika (written: 史華, 史佳, 史加, 文香, 富美加 or ふみか in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese actress and model *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese ice hockey player ...

and

won for the second time, this time 4 & 3 over

/ Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras. The fourt pairing,

Sadom Kaewkanjana Sadom Kaewkanjana (; born 6 July 1998) is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the Asian Tour where he has won twice. Kaewkanjana won his first Asian Tour event in 2019 at the Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open which made him the fastest qualifying s ...

and

won over Yuto Katsuragawa and

one up.

Day two

''Saturday, 22 December 2018''

Morning foursomes

Afternoon four-ball

Day three

''Sunday, 23 December 2018''

Singles

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

Thailand

Japan

Partners

References

External links

* {{coord, 37.380, 126.624, type:event, display=title Amata Friendship Cup Golf tournaments in Thailand Amata Friendship Cup Amata Friendship Cup Amata Friendship Cup Amata Friendship Cup Amata Friendship Cup