The history of the Queen Sirikit Cup—officially known as the Amateur Ladies Asia-Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championship - is very much a part of the history of Thailand Ladies Golf Association which was registered in February 1979, under the chairmanship of Mom Kobkaew Abhakara. One of the Association’s founders, Rae-Vadee T. Suwan, came up with the idea to launch a national team championship in view of the fact that no international ladies’ event existed in the region at that time. She felt that lady golfers with great potential but insufficient financial resources could not go very far in their game. It was timely for them to be given a chance to play at a higher level and accomplish more for themselves and their countries. Through the championship, a higher standard of the game could be raised and more friendships could be formed.

Hence a proposal was sent to the national golf association of 14 countries including Thailand, namely, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Burma, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand to send a team of 3 players to launch the national team championship in Bangkok, Thailand. Of the 14 countries invited, nine countries participated in the inaugural event, known then as the “Amateur Ladies Asian Invitational Golf Team Championship”.

Mom Kobkaew Abhakara was instrumental in requesting the challenge trophy from Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand who graciously granted Her permission to have the trophy named in Her honour as the “Queen Sirikit Cup”. The Queen Sirikit Cup is a beautifully handcrafted silver trophy and the exact replica is presented to the champion team each year.

The inaugural Queen Sirikit Cup was hosted by Thailand at Navatanee Golf Course, venue of the 1975 World Cup, during February 15-17, 1979. Teams represented were Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Japan won the first championship with Thailand as runner-up.

At the first Team Captains’ meeting, it was agreed that future hostings of the championship would be on a rotation basis among the member countries. Indonesia came forward to host the second event that welcomed in two more countries, Australia and Philippines, to make up 11 teams. Japan successfully defended her title for the second year and became the host for the 3rd championship, where Australia captured the Cup for the first time. For the next three years from 1981-1983 Australia dominated the field by winning the Queen Sirikit Cup consecutively in Japan, Sri Lanka and Singapore. When it was Australia’s turn to host the 6th championship, the 12th member, New Zealand, decided to join the tournament and walked away with the Cup in her first participation. Australia, however, recaptured the Cup again for the next 2 years in Malaysia and India. In 1987 Japan won for the 3rd time in the Philippines while Korea rejoined the championship with young and promising players after an absence of 7 years since the inaugural championship in 1979.

The 10th anniversary of the Queen Sirikit Cup was celebrated in Thailand in 1988 with full participation of 12 member teams. Australia continued to maintain her top performance and won the Cup for the 6th time in the first decade. The tournament’s theme song, The Women’s Spirit, was launched on this occasion and the teams were granted an audience with H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who represented H.M. Queen Sirikit at Chitrlada Palace.

The second decade started in New Zealand and the People’s Republic of China joined the championship as its 13th member. Korea did well this decade to win the Cup for the first time in 1989 and continued the winning trek, with exceptions in 1990 and 1993, to capture the title six more times. The 12th Queen Sirikit Cup was played in Hong Kong in 1990 with full participation of 13 members. New Zealand won her second title here since 1984. The next 2 years Korea regained her title on home ground Korea and in China. In 1993 when Australia played host for the 2nd time in the 15th edition, it was Japan who beat the home favourite team and gained her 4th title since 5 years earlier.

Korea continued to prove her dominance of the game for the next 3 years by winning in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand from 1994-1996. In the 19th Queen Sirikit Cup which was hosted by the Philippines for the second round after 10 years, Japan felt most at home and captured the title here again, adding to her 5th victory.

At the close of the 2nd decade in 1998 Korea celebrated her 7th title in India and became the team with the most wins. Australia came second with 6, followed by Japan with 5 and New Zealand with 2 wins. The championship also welcomed its 14th member, Chinese Taipei, to join at the 20th anniversary of the Queen Sirikit Cup in India.

The 3rd decade of the Queen Sirikit Cup began in New Zealand where the first-ever playoff for the team title between host team New Zealand and new-comer Chinese Taipei was witnessed when both 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 captured the best individual title.

The 22nd and 23rd championships were played in Taiwan and Hong Kong and 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, when 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 redeem 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 the result of the recommendation made by the Executive Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, Dato Thomas M.L. Lee.

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.

In 2005 the championship returned to Thailand for the 27th Queen Sirikit Cup at Green Valley Country Club and was renamed “Asia-Pacific Ladies Invitational Golf Team Championship” to reflect the geographic locations of member countries that span from the Pacific region to the southern part of Asia. Sri Lanka regained her membership after 3 years’ absence. In addition to the 13 participating teams, delegates from the R&A, Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, the Ladies Asian Golf Tour and supporters from member countries were present and made this occasion the largest gathering of golfing officials. Chinese Taipei displayed her great skill to win the Cup for the first time with the scores of 435—2 strokes lower than runner-up home team Thailand at 437.

The 28th Queen Sirikit Cup went back to Royal Adelaide Golf Club in Australia in 2006. It was played under difficult conditions for most teams due to changing weather pattern. However, the least affected teams, defending champion Chinese Taipei and New Zealand, found their scores tied and a playoff was needed. It was a very steady performance by the defending champion Chinese Taipei team that won the playoff on the first hole, while the New Zealand team showed their fighting spirit until the final putt.

In 2007 the championship was hosted by the Philippines at The Country Club, Laguna. It was the first time that teams from all 14 member countries were represented. Again, it was the unbeatable team from Korea that led the field from start to finish with the scores of 414. This was the lowest team score ever recorded in the history of the Queen Sirikit Cup. At the close of the 3rd decade, Korea emerged the leading team with a record of 10 wins to her credit. Australia had 8 wins, Japan 6, New Zealand 3 and Chinese Taipei 2 wins.

During the last 3 decades of the Queen Sirikit Cup, many former national players have turned professional and several of them are now world-class players on the various Tours. The Ladies Asian Golf Tour has also been set up with the objective to provide a path for the top amateurs from the Queen Sirikit Cup to move forward into their professional career. It is interesting to compare the winning scores from the first two decades to last year’s result as the scores kept going down lower each year. In the inaugural championship the winning team’s score was 459, in the 10th championship – 446, in the 20th championship – 433 and in the 29th championship –414. The same improvement could be seen for the individual winners. It was 229 in the inaugural championship, 221 in the 10th tournament, 216 in the 20th championship and 204 in the 29th edition.

The hostings of the championship have been rotating among the 14 member countries where countless number of people were involved in making every tournament a great and memorable success. There will be no exception to the rule when the 30th anniversary of the Queen Sirikit Cup returns to Japan during May 28-30, 2008 for the 3rd hosting. Even with the short preparation time due to unexpected change of venue from Sri Lanka in view of political unrest, every effort to ensure its traditional objectives in promoting friendship, sportsmanship, as well as the high standard of the game, will go forward from strength to strength into the new decade.