TOMARATA, New Zealand (AP) — Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand became the second player to win back-to-back in the Asia-Pacific Amateur with another Sunday comeback, this time without having to win in a playoff. He closed with a 1-under 70 for a three-shot victory.
That sends Laopakdee back to Augusta National in April for the Masters, along with a return trip to the British Open next summer at St. Andrews.
The 21-year-old Thai said he exchanged phone numbers at the last Masters with Justin Rose, who promised him a practice round if Laopakdee made it back.
“Rosey, see you at a practice round for the Masters,” Laopakdee said with a wide smile.
Laopakdee, three shots behind with 10 holes to play at Te Arai Links, flipped the script in one hole when he hit his approach just over the false front to 7 feet for a birdie on No. 11, and Zack Swanwick of New Zealand shockingly took a triple bogey.
That four-shot swing took Laopakdee form a two-shot deficit to a two-shot lead, and the Arizona State senior didn't give Swanwick much of a chance to catch him.
Laopakdee effectively ended it with a wedge to 4 feet on the par-3 17th for one final birdie, stretching his lead to four shots. Swanwick, who began the final round with a two-shot lead over Laopakdee and Cooper Moore, didn't make a birdie until the par-5 closing hole. He shot 75.
Laopakdee joined Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama as the only players to win consecutive years since the Asia-Pacific Amateur began in 2009.
He repeatedly shook his fists when he tapped in for par on the 18th to finish at 6-under 278 at the wind-blown seaside course about an hour north of Auckland.
It was a tough ending for Swanwick, trying to become the first Kiwi to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur in front of a home crowd, in a year when New Zealand celebrated another major champion in Ryan Fox at Royal Birkdale.
Swanwick, a junior at Florida, had a two-shot lead going to the 11th hole when his 6-iron was a little strong and went into a back bunker. His shot came out a fraction too strong, rolled past the pin and then off the false front into a deep swale. His chip-and-run up the slope came back to his feet. The next chip barely stayed on the green and he missed then 8-foot putt to take triple bogey.
“Middle of the green, make par and get out of there,” Swanwick said. “I hit into the bunker, just flew the bunker shot a little too far and got a little too cute with the chip. Just had a few mistakes that cost me.”
Swanwick looked he might get it back on the par-5 13th into the wind. His second shot came up short and he pitched to 10 feet for a chance at birdie. Laopakdee drove into a sandy area, and only advanced the ball some 40 yards into more sand. He laid up, then hit wedge to 20 feet.
Laopakdee rolled in the long par putt, and Swanwick missed his birdie. Instead of a chance to tie for the lead, the Kiwi was still two behind. And on the short par-4 14th, Swanwick drilled driver onto the green, some 70 feet away. He rolled a putt over the ridge to about 8 feet, missed the birdie putt and the missed the 4-foot par putt. The four-putt bogey sent him three behind.
“It was tough luck for Zack on 11, it was super windy,” Laopakdee said. “I somehow hit a great second shot and made birdie and it created huge momentum for me.”
Kayun Mudadana of Australia closed with a 67 and finished alone in third at 2-under 282. Moore birdied the last hole for 75 and was another shot back. Only four players finished under par.
A year ago in Dubai, Laopakdee rallied from a six-shot deficit in the final round and won the Asia-Pacific on the third playoff hole.
Laopakdee, at No. 31 in the world amateur ranking, won the Desimone Invitational in early March at Lake Merced in San Francisco. But the rest of the year was a disappointment until Sunday.
“This is one of the last events of the year, and I wanted to prove to myself that I've still got it,” he said. “To pull it off, it means the whole world to me.”
See AP’s full golf coverage here
Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand poses with his trophy after winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Golf at Te Arai Links, in New Zealand, Sunday Nov. 1, 2026. (Fiona Goodall/Photosport via AP)
Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand reacts after winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Golf at Te Arai Links, in New Zealand, Sunday Nov. 1, 2026. (Fiona Goodall/Photosport via AP)
FILE -Fifa Laopakdee, of Thailand, walks to green on the second hole during the first round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Donald Trump, this week's elections are about him. For his fellow Republicans, the risk is voters will agree.
Midterms almost always serve as a referendum on the president’s party, and losses typically ensue. But Trump’s decisions to impose tariffs, start a war and oversee extravagant Washington renovations — largely without congressional consultation — have made it harder for Republicans to navigate those historical headwinds.
There is a direct connection between his actions and higher gas prices, costlier groceries and persistently high inflation.
Republicans cannot blame the fallout from those decisions on past administrations when Trump has owned them so fulsomely. They also cannot easily distance themselves from an unpopular president who demands loyalty and routinely tells voters the economy is just fine.
At virtually every juncture before Election Day on Tuesday, Trump has complicated the task of protecting Republican majorities in Congress.
The Iran war is “making it exponentially harder for Republicans to keep the House and Senate,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, one of the most vulnerable House Republicans, said in a debate while noting his support for the effort.
Republicans have had one distinct advantage: money.
Trump’s political groups spent nearly $277 million to boost Republicans since September, a staggering amount that puts this year on pace to be the most expensive midterm ever.
But it may not be enough to carry the GOP.
His import taxes disrupted the agricultural economy and triggered a trade war with Canada, putting Republicans on defense in Senate races from Iowa, Michigan and Kansas to Nebraska, Ohio and Maine. The war in Iran that he said would be over in weeks continues eight months later with no clear strategy for conclusion, starkly at odds with his pledge to not engage in Middle East conflicts.
“This administration’s actions are directly responsible for rising costs,” former Democratic President Barack Obama said in Ohio.
Trump has shown little sympathy for Americans coping with rising costs. He has dismissed affordability challenges as a “hoax” and told a Georgia rally that he does not “give a damn” about criticism of gas prices — even as he celebrated profits for U.S. oil and gas companies.
All the while, he has grown far more wealthy, taking in $1.2 billion from crypto businesses while most investors lost money.
Campaigning with Democrats in competitive House races recently in Virginia, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg argued that “the corruption that we’ve seen is directly connected to the pain that people are feeling economically.”
“You cannot separate these things,” said Buttigieg, a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
Some voters are also upset at Trump's priorities, including his lavish Washington remake.
A ballroom that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts deemed “likely unlawful” is rising over the White House as the Republican administration signals it could begin work on building a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery later this week. He has said he will defy a federal judge and move forward later this month with plans to close a park along the Potomac River that has long served as the backdrop for family picnics, scenic bike rides and affordable golf to make way for a “world class” golf course.
Midterms are historically challenging for a president’s party.
During Trump's last midterm in 2018, Democrats gained 40 House seats and 31 during Republican George W. Bush’s second term in 2006. Republicans, meanwhile, picked up 63 seats in 2010 under Obama but flipped fewer than 10 in 2022 under Democratic President Joe Biden.
Redistricting has reduced the number of genuinely competitive House districts, but Trump has added to the GOP's challenge by intervening in several Senate races in ways that may ultimately erase their majority. In Texas, outgoing Republican Sen. John Cornyn has warned that Trump's pick in this year's primary, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, is weak against Democrat James Talarico, a state representative.
“Even in places like Texas, which are pretty red, we've got flawed candidates who I think are going to have a hard time," Cornyn said in a brief interview.
About one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the presidency, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s lower than Biden’s approval in AP-NORC polling just before the midterms as well as Trump’s first-term approval, which stood around 40% just before the midterms.
In October 2006, around 37% of U.S. adults approved of Bush’s performance while about 45% approved of Obama’s performance just before the 2010 elections, according to Gallup polling. Gallup’s presidential approval tracking question, which was discontinued by the firm earlier this year, phrased the question differently and used a different method than AP-NORC polls so the findings are not directly comparable.
Previous presidents such as Bush and Obama, when their approval ratings were drooping, gave members of their party room to create some distance. Trump is generally not leaving that kind of space, leading candidates to take more subtle steps like removing mentions of the president from their websites.
Democrats have kept up the pressure, spending hundreds of millions on advertising that connects Republicans to Trump. A Democratic ad in Michigan, for example, called Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, “all in on the war, all in on Trump.”
Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP nominee for Senate in Iowa, is testing how to balance loyalty and independence from Trump, who scheduled a rally in the state Sunday. She said in a debate that she would be Trump’s “ally when it is important for Iowa, but I will push back on him.”
She toured an ethanol facility in Dyersville, Iowa, a few days later alongside Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. The visit was intended to underscore her advocacy for one of Iowa's most important industries but she soon faced questions about Trump’s controversial deal with Russia to lower diesel prices.
“Lowering fuel prices across the board continues to be a priority for me,” Hinson said before adding that “it makes me a little bit nervous anytime we’re talking about relieving a sanction on Russia.”
For all of the GOP's challenges, Democrats also face risks. As some in the party become bullish in their expectations, there are warnings about over-interpreting the results.
“Anger against Trump is going to be a waning emotion,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in an interview. “We’ve got to deliver.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., recently traveled to Hungary to study how voters rejected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his authoritarian policies. In a speech, she spoke of a “tipping point” when “the public will refuse to accept this level of corruption.”
Asked in an interview whether the U.S. is reaching a “tipping point,” she said “that’s the $100 million question,” cautioning that voters are not “falling in love with Democrats.”
“A midterm is almost always a signal and a reaction to the party in power,” she said. “What we do, starting January 1, if we manage to flip the House, is going to be a proof point for those swing voters on whether they made a good call.”
Editor's Note: Steven Sloan has covered politics for The Associated Press since 2018.
Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg center, and Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., center right, hold hands with Virginia Democratic congressional candidates during a campaign rally, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, in Henrico, Va. (AP Photo/Mike Kropf)
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Marine One with President Donald Trump on board passes over White House ballroom construction after lifting off from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
