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by DAN WASHBURN<\/strong> Kasumigaseki CC may have waived its longstanding jackets-only policy for October\u2019s Asian Amateur Championship, but jackets\u2014green ones, to be exact\u2014remained in vogue at the suburban Tokyo club\u2019s historic West Course all week. Men wearing golf\u2019s most iconic blazer could be found around every corner. So could Southern accents. If not for the chopsticks and all of the bowing, it might as well have been the clubhouse at Augusta National.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t. It was some 7,000 miles to the west. And that Augusta National would make a point to fly its chairman and 12 members (and their 13 green jackets that almost never make it beyond Magnolia Lane) all the way to Japan for a fledgling amateur tournament shows just how serious the club is about the event it launched last year with the R&A and the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great to see the green jackets\u2014it really shows how important this event is,\u201d said Singapore\u2019s Lam Zhiqun, 21, who led this year\u2019s tournament after two rounds before falling to 13th, 16 shots back of Japanese teenager Hideki Matsuyama, who dominated the weekend and rolled to a five-stroke victory at 15 under. \u201cIn America you have the U.S. Amateur. In Europe you have the British Amateur. In Asia and the Pacific it is now the Asian Amateur.\u201d<\/big><\/p>\n To read the rest of the story, you’ll have to use the PDF found below. In an effort to continue to sell magazines, <\/em>Golf World<\/a> only puts a handful of stories from each issue online.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGolf World<\/em><\/a>, Nov. 1, 2010<\/p>\n