2018 Amata Friendship Cup

The 2018 Amata Friendship Cup (Thai: อมตะ เฟรนด์ชิพ คัพ 2018; Japanese: 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 in Chonburi, Thailand. The Amata Friendship Cup is a team competition between the top mixed-gender professional and amateur golfers from Thailand and Japan. It is a three-day match play event between teams of twelve players with a similar format to the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. Boonchu Ruangkit and Virada Nirapathpongporn captained the Thai team and Naomichi Ozaki and Miho Koga captained the Japanese team.

2018 Amata Friendship Cup

Dates	21–23 December 2018
Venue	Amata Spring Country Club
Location	Chonburi, Thailand
Captains	Boonchu Ruangkit Virada Nirapathpongporn (Thailand) Naomichi Ozaki Miho Koga (Japan)
15 13
Thailand wins the Amata Friendship Cup

Amata Spring Country Club

Location in Thailand

Team Thailand won by a score of 15–13.

Format

The Amata Friendship Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The format is as follows:^[1]

• 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.^[1]

Team Thailand Team Thailand[2] Male professionals Player Age World ranking Kiradech Aphibarnrat 29 38 Jazz Janewattananond 23 125 Prayad Marksaeng 52 299 Thongchai Jaidee 49 438 Prom Meesawat 34 493 Female professionals Player Age Rolex ranking Ariya Jutanugarn 23 1 Moriya Jutanugarn 24 20 Pornanong Phatlum 29 50 Thidapa Suwannapura 26 94 Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras 20 160 Male amateur Player Age WAGR ranking Sadom Kaewkanjana 20 13 Female amateur Player Age WAGR ranking Atthaya Thitikul 15 8

Team Japan Team Japan[3] Male professionals Player Age World ranking Satoshi Kodaira 29 47 Ryuko Tokimatsu 25 113 Kodai Ichihara 36 171 Hideto Tanihara 40 172 Masahiro Kawamura 25 215 Female professionals Player Age Rolex ranking Nasa Hataoka 19 7 Fumika Kawagishi 24 142 Sakura Koiwai 20 59 Mami Fukuda 26 118 Erika Hara 19 132 Male amateur Player Age WAGR ranking Yuto Katsuragawa 20 454 Female amateur Player Age WAGR ranking Yuri Yoshida 18 67

Day one

Friday, 21 December 2018

Morning foursomes

The opening round of four fourball matches started at 7:15 am local time. The first point of the 2018 Amata Friendship Cup was won by Team Japan, with Ryuko Tokimatsu and Erika Hara winning 6 & 5 against Prayad Marksaeng and Moriya Jutanugarn.^[4] Prom Meesawat and Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras came from two down after the fourth and fifth hole to beat Masahiro Kawamura and Mami Fukuda two up.^[4] Jaidee and Thidapa Suwannapura also won by one against Kodai Ichihara and Sakura Koiwai one up.^[4] In the last match, Aphibarnrat and Thitikul won the seventeenth hole to halve Satoshi Kodaira and Yuri Yoshida, and to end the first morning 21⁄2–11⁄2 in favour of Team Thailand.^[4]

	Results[5]
Marksaeng/M.Jutanugarn	6 & 5	Tokimatsu/Hara
Meesawat/Thanapolboonyaras	2 up	Kawamura/Fukuda
Jaidee/Suwannapura	1 up	Ichihara/Koiwai
Aphibarnrat/Thitikul	halved	Kodaira/Yoshida
21⁄2	Session	11⁄2
21⁄2	Overall	11⁄2

Afternoon four-ball

The afternoon session was won by team Thailand. It started at 12:00 pm local time. Jazz Janewattananond and Pornanong Phatlum won 3 & 2 over Hideto Tanihara and Nasa Hataoka, Prayad Marksaeng and Ariya Jutanugarn won the last hole to halve Kodai Ichihara and Fumika Kawagishi, Ryuko Tokimatsu and Erika Hara won for the second time, this time 4 & 3 over Prom Meesawat/Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras. The fourt pairing, Sadom Kaewkanjana and Moriya Jutanugarn won over Yuto Katsuragawa and Sakura Koiwai one up.

	Results[5]
Janewattananond/Phatlum	3 & 2	Tanihara/Hataoka
Marksaeng/A.Jutanugarn	halved	Ichihara/Kawagishi
Meesawat/Thanapolboonyaras	4 & 3	Tokimatsu/Hara
Kaewkanjana/M.Jutanugarn	1 up	Katsuragawa/Koiwai
21⁄2	Session	11⁄2
5	Overall	3

Day two

Saturday, 22 December 2018

Morning foursomes

	Results[5]
Jaidee/Suwannapura	3 & 2	Kawamura/Hara
Meesawat/Thanapolboonyaras	1 up	Tokimatsu/Hataoka
Janewattananond/A.Jutanugarn	7 & 5	Kodaira/Koiwai
Kaewkanjana/Phatlum	6 & 5	Katsuragawa/Fukuda
3	Session	1
8	Overall	4

Afternoon four-ball

	Results[5]
Janewattananond/M.Jutanugarn	2 & 1	Kawamura/Kawagishi
Jaidee/Phatlum	1 up	Ichihara/Fukuda
Aphibarnrat/A.Jutanugarn	2 & 1	Kodaira/Hataoka
Marksaeng/Thitikul	5 & 3	Tanihara/Yoshida
2	Session	2
10	Overall	6

Day three

Sunday, 23 December 2018

Singles

	Results[5]
Sadom Kaewkanjana	1 up	Yuto Katsuragawa
Atthaya Thitikul	1 up	Yuri Yoshida
Jazz Janewattananond	1 up	Kodai Ichihara
Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras	1 up	Erika Hara
Prom Meesawat	halved	Ryuko Tokimatsu
Thidapa Suwannapura	2 up	Sakura Koiwai
Thongchai Jaidee	3 & 2	Masahiro Kawamura
Pornanong Phatlum	5 & 3	Fumika Kawagishi
Prayad Marksaeng	halved	Hideto Tanihara
Moriya Jutanugarn	1 up	Mami Fukuda
Kiradech Aphibarnrat	1 up	Satoshi Kodaira
Ariya Jutanugarn	3 & 1	Nasa Hataoka
5	Session	7
15	Overall	13

Individual player records

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

Thailand

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Jazz Janewattananond	4	4–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	2–0–0
Kiradech Aphibarnrat	2.5	2–0–1	1–0–0	0–0–1	1–0–0
Ariya Jutanugarn	2.5	2–1–1	0–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–1
Prom Meesawat	2.5	2–1–1	0–0–1	2–0–0	0–1–0
Moriya Jutanugarn	2	2–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	2–0–0
Sadom Kaewkanjana	2	2–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–0
Pornanong Phatlum	2	2–2–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
Thidapa Suwannapura	2	2–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–0
Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras	2	2–2–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	0–1–0
Atthaya Thitikul	1.5	1–1–1	1–0–0	0–0–1	0–1–0
Thongchai Jaidee	1	1–3–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–1–0
Prayad Marksaeng	1	0–2–2	0–0–1	0–1–0	0–1–1

Japan

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Erika Hara	4	4–0–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	1–0–0
Ryuko Tokimatsu	2.5	2–1–1	0–0–1	1–1–0	1–0–0
Mami Fukuda	2	2–2–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	1–0–0
Masahiro Kawamura	2	2–2–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–1–0
Kodai Ichihara	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–1
Fumika Kawagishi	1.5	1–1–1	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–1
Hideto Tanihara	1.5	1–1–1	0–0–1	0–0–0	1–1–0
Yuri Yoshida	1.5	1–1–1	0–1–0	0–0–1	1–0–0
Nasa Hataoka	1	1–3–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–2–0
Yuto Katsuragawa	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Satoshi Kodaira	0.5	0–3–1	0–1–0	0–1–1	0–1–0
Sakura Koiwai	0	0–4–0	0–1–0	0–2–0	0–1–0

Partners

2018 Amata Friendship Cup partners[6]
Tier	Sponsoring firms
Presenting	Toyota
Platinum	Singha Corporation, Siam Commercial Bank
Gold	Siam Cement Group, Tourism Authority of Thailand (under the slogan Amazing Thailand), International Sports Promotion Society
Silver	PPTV HD 36, Fenix XCell, Ricoh