In summary

  • Takis finished fourth at the 2025 event after a quadruple-bogey on the fifth hole, including a tee shot stuck in a palm tree, cruelled his title tilt.
  • Ranked 21 in the world amateur rankings, Takis is chasing victory this week, with the winner earning a spot at the 2027 Masters and Open Championship.
  • He says the Te Arai coastal links feel similar to Melbourne's Sandbelt, which could give him and the other seven Australians in the field an advantage.

Takis was tied for the lead in the third round of the 2025 event when a series of poor tee shots on the fifth hole, including a re-load which landed in the top of a palm tree, resulted in a quadruple-bogey which cruelled his title tilt. He still finished fourth, after a closing-hole eagle in the final round.  

However Takis, a junior at San Diego State University who earned First Team All-America honours in 2026, saw pine trees and not palms when he arrived at the course on the New Zealand coast, feeling Sandbelt vibes, too with one clear goal in mind.  

“Everyone kind of comes into this event like knowing that second doesn't really get you anything,” he said; the victor rewarded with a spot at the 2027 Masters and Open Championship.

“The goal is obviously to win, but you have to put yourself in the position to do that first. That's kind of the goal; to get in the mix with nine holes to play and then see what happens. 

“Obviously that didn't happen last year, but you know, got another chance, so going to make the most of it.”

Harry Takis feels Sandbelt vibes at Te Arai LInks. (Photo: AAC)

Takis is the highest-ranked player in the field at 21 on the world amateur rankings, albeit only two spots ahead of his Kiwi rival, Zackary Swanwick.

However, he shrugged off any sense of pressure, while doing a press conference, declaring everyone starts at “even par”.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself, regardless whether I'm ranked the worst player in the field or the best player. The ranking doesn't really matter,” he said.   

“You see high‑ranked people win college events all the time and amateur events. The guy who won the US Am this year was ranked 95th in the world and the top 100 players are all there.  Yeah, I don't think the ranking means too much.

“It's cool to get all the publicity that comes with being the highest‑ranked player in the field, but yeah, everyone start at even par, so it doesn't really bother me too much.”

Takis also pointed to a sense of comfort for not just himself, but all eight Australian competitors after getting a couple of days' worth of up-close looks at the coastal links course. Maybe more than comfort ...

“I like it. It's very similar to the Sandbelt in Melbourne, the grass and the greens,” he said.

“The Australians will have an advantage this week. We play a lot of golf in similar conditions to this and it's definitely not like playing golf in the US … but I think playing back home, yeah, it's very similar.”

Which means pine trees, not palm trees, even though most of the forestry isn’t in play.

Though his 2025 experience was a talking point on arrival at Te Arai, Takis said he’d decided to use it as a learning opportunity to build the mental resilience he knows he needs to be successful.

“Yeah, I've gotten better over the years at handling situations like that, where you feel like there's nothing you can do, but in the end, probably don't hit it at the palm tree and it won't go in it,” he said.

“I'm going to try to keep it away from the trees and keep it in the short stuff this week and see how we go.”

Australians have a rich history in the event, with two of the past four winners including Harrison Crowe in 2022 and Jasper Stubbs at Royal Melbourne in 2023.

Takis played that year, but felt like an “impostor” and his rounds of 82 and 75 across the weekend were never going to put him in contention.

Three years later, however, he’s a much different, much better and more ready player to succeed.

“My first year playing like this, I felt like an imposter. I didn't really feel like I was good enough to be there,” he said.

“We had a big team of Aussies, and I think I was the youngest by a couple years. Yeah, Royal Melbourne was a beast that week, so I kind of got beat up. I didn't know if I wanted to come back the next year.

“But I feel a lot better now. I'm a lot more comfortable in my golf game and I know that I can obviously hang with the best of them out here. So yeah, definitely learn a lot over the last few years and really excited to get this one under way.

“This is definitely a tournament I want to win. I've seen a lot of Aussies win it and seeing the opportunities they have had from those events. Harrison Crowe, Jasper ...

“I would love to win this week, but I have to do all the right things to put myself in that position first.”

Takis will fly the Australian flag along with Kayun Mudadana, Graham Hourn, Harrison Gomez, Samuel Cascio, Wesley Hinton, Rick Heath and Jonty Lunson.