Nanayama Breaks JGTA Record

The JGTA’s 2018-2019 season has officially come to an end with the completion of the ATI Ciputra Golfpreneur Junior World 2019 presented by AKI, which took place this week at Damai Indah Golf’s PIK course, located in Jakarta, Indonesia.

JGTA Bogor Junior Championship winner and Jakarta local Kentaro Nanayama (2021) dusted the field in the final round, finishing with scores of 67-67-72, for a tournament total of 10-under-par 206, the best tournament total score in JGTA history. Nanayama calls Damai Indah Golf’s PIK course his home and shooting a score of 67 (twice) is his course record. This win for Nanayama means much more than you can imagine. With this win, he finished in the top-5 on the Junior Order of Merit, punching his ticket with Fully Exempt AJGA PBE Status to play on the AJGA circuit for the next two years. In addition, with his win, Nanayama has received an exemption into the Asian Development Tour’s Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament presented by Panasonic, taking place in August at Damai Indah Golf’s BSD Course.

“I feel really excited for my summer, especially being able to play all of the AJGA events that I want to play, and obviously it means a lot to make a statement here in my home country”, said Nanayama.

Coming in a tie for second behind Nanayama in the Boy’s Overall Division is Kieron Carl Van Wyk (2020) of Johannesburg, South Africa and Sean Lee (2021) of Singapore. Both players finished at 2-under-par for the tournament.

Hong Kong Junior Classic at Clearwater Bay champion Pongsapak Laopakdee (2023) of Rayong, Thailand finished in second place in the JGTA Division – earning him the title of JGTA Boys Player of the Year and JGTA Junior Order of Merit Champion. Laopakdee completed the season with two runner-up finishes and a win under his belt.

In the Girls Overall Division, defending champion Phannarai Meesom-Us (2022) of Chonburi, Thailand has gone back to back to win this year’s tournament. Meesom-Us shot a final round score of 1-under-par 71 to

2018 JGTA Phuket Junior Open champion Natachanok Tunwannarux (2023) of Bangkok, Thailand is crowned champion once again, taking home the JGTA Girl’s Division. Tunwannarux shot 77-72-73 to finish with a tournament total of 6-over-par 222. Last summer, Tunwannarux became an AJGA champion, winning the Foley Performance Academy @ EaglesDream Junior All-Star.

“I wanted to thank CJ, Katie, and all of the JGTA Staff for making this event possible. It is a really great opportunity for me and all of Asia’s Players to be able to go to the U.S. and play AJGA’s with Status”, said Tunwannarux