Title Defense at Te Arai: Fifa Laopakdee Wins 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur

A month ago, after a third round 73 at the Asian Games in Japan, Fifa Laopakdee felt so lost with his golf game, he returned to his hotel room with a plan: He was going to burst into tears and let months of frustrations spill out of him.

For some unexplainable reason, the tears would not come. He could not even cry properly. Numbness had overtaken sadness.

Just another thing I’m failing at, he told himself. Just more proof that I’m not good enough.

Golf can take you to dark places, even when you’re a great player. Expectations — either your own or other people’s — can occasionally increase the depth of your despair. When Laopakdee won the Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2025, the expectations for his career began to compound. Was this the next great Asian player? The best male player from Thailand since Kiradech Aphibarnrat?

At the Masters dinner to welcome the amateurs this year, Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley gave a toast and told the room that Laopakdee reminded him of a young Tiger Woods. It was meant as both a golf compliment and a nod to Laopakdee’s and Woods’ shared Thai heritage, but it turned up the heat just a bit more. Laopakdee felt like he didn’t play well in the Masters (missed cut) or the Open Championship (missed cut). He won a college tournament in March, but then fell into a slump that he could not escape.

The Asian Games, even though he finished with a final round 67, felt like rock bottom. “I feel like this year, I didn't cry at all,” Laopakdee said. “I feel like in those tough moments, I feel like I just couldn't cry. Just like me and myself, in a bedroom by myself, creates a lot of self‑doubt and pressuring myself. Am I still good enough to be in this thing?”

The tears finally came after the final putt dropped at Te Arai Links on Sunday in New Zealand, and the self-doubt was sent packing. Laopakdee pumped his fists and roared several times, with a mixture of relief and elation, as he became the first player to win back-to-back Asia-Pacific Amateurs since Hideki Matsuyama in 2010 and 2011. His 5 under in the final round was three shots better than New Zealand’s Zack Swanwick.

The tears, he later explained, felt hard-earned. He’d spent the last few months journaling and reading Bob Rotella’s famous mental game bible, “Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect,” and the player who emerged on the other side is one he was extremely proud of.

“There was a demon in me that said I don’t have it anymore,” Laopakdee said. “But there was still a big part of me that believed in myself.”

In 2025, Laopakdee overcame a six-shot deficit in the final round to grab a spot in a three-way playoff, then won with a nervy up-and-down on the third playoff hole. His 2026 title didn’t require the same late-round heroics, but it did not come easy. Swanwick led at the start of the day by two strokes and looked like he was fully in control of the championship until the two players came to the difficult 11th hole.

Both players had to hit long-iron approaches into a strapping wind, and held the devilish-domed green. Swanwick — who had been striking the ball beautifully all week — tugged his iron just a hair left, and it tumbled into a deep bunker. Laopakdee hit one of the most clutch shots of his career, a penetrating iron that never left its line. It stopped five feet from the flag.

Swanwick hit what looked (at first) like a decent bunker shot. But he knew, as soon as it landed, that it had carried too far in the air. For 10 agonizing seconds, he watched it creep slowly down the slope, away from the flag, until it ran off the green. Faced with a difficult shot, and the prospect of his lead slipping away, he left a chip short that ran back to his feet. You could feel half of New Zealand deflating in real time.

“I landed the bunker shot five to seven feet [too far],” Swanwick said. “Was trying to keep it on the slope but couldn't land it on the slope. Wasn't that bad of a shot but ended up in not a good situation.”

Laopakdee pounced, calmly rolling in his birdie putt. Swanwick tapped in for a triple bogey. A two-shot deficit was suddenly a two-shot lead.

“My hand was shaking right after the 11 putt, since I know that I'm a leader,” Laopakdee said. “I just keep telling myself, ‘I'm still going to play like I'm behind, and I'm still going to think in my head that he's still leading.’”

On the 13th hole, a 568-yard par 5, Laopakdee wiped his drive to the right and found a bunker. Swanwick pounded his down the middle. Laopakdee’s ball was sitting down in the sand, and he tried to muscle back into the fairway and found another fairway bunker. Swanwick smashed a 3-wood up near the green.

It felt like the championship was about to flip for a second time.

Laopakdee hit a majestic iron shot from the second fairway bunker, powerful enough that it left him just a half-wedge into the green. His ball stopped 25 feet short of the hole, but it gave him a look at a par putt. Against all logic and odds, he drained it. Swanwick, who had wedged it close, missed his birdie chance. It felt like a formality from there.

Laopakdee and his caddie, Santiago Botero, kept things light throughout the day by singing verses from “I Want It That Way” by The Backstreet Boys, which Laopakdee playfully demonstrated during the winner’s press conference.

“Me and him, we have a great relationship,” Laopakdee said. “He's having more fun out there than me. You can see he's always smiling and that makes me smile. We just have fun out there.”

Best friends since they were roommates together at Arizona State, a relationship forged by video game showdowns, late-night Raising Cane's runs and arguments over whose turn it was to empty the dishwasher, Botero and Laopakdee have become a formidable duo on the golf course. Before the final round, Botero wrote a message in Laopakdee’s yardage book: Shoulders back, be confident, chin up, go through your process, and I love you, bro. Have fun.

“I’m very proud of him,” Botero said. “I’ve seen the work he’s put in. I’ve seen how he’s grown and the effort he’s put in. I really think he’s got it in him to be one of the best players of all time. He’s got such a good swing.”

It feels way too early to throw out predictions like Laopakdee being “one of the best players of all time,” but it’s also the kind of boast you can forgive his best friend for throwing out there in such a joyful moment. Maybe it will seem ridiculous a decade from now. But we also might look back one day at his two victories in the Asia-Pacific Amateur and realize the expectations were high for a reason. Laopakdee might as well continue to channel immortal words of The Backstreet Boys: Believe when I say, I want it that way.

{{inline-article}}