Twelve months ago, Jasper Stubbs was relatively unknown in the golfing community, apart from those with a close interest in Australian amateur golf.

That all changed when the Victorian won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in sensational style at Royal Melbourne last October, setting up an unforgettable 12 months that included starts in The Masters and The Open.

This week, he is defending champion at Taiheyo Club Gotemba in Japan, is in high demand media wise, has his face on websites and social media platforms promoting the event and will play in one of the feature televised groups.

Unknown Jasper is no more.

Here’s some pre-tournament thoughts from the 2023 winner.

It's cool hearing “defending champion” and seeing it on signs as well. I'm grateful to be the defending champion and come back again.

Coming back as a defending champion, it fills me with a bit of confidence. No matter how this week goes, I've always got the memories and the appearances of the last 12 months and what I did this time last year, so I think there's no added pressure for me.

That finish (last year) is something I'll always remember. Those last probably two, three holes in my regulation play, and then obviously the playoff, as well, was one of the most exciting days of golf I've ever played in. It's always something I look back on very fondly, and it's something still hard to believe even with the year I've had.

This is an amazing golf course. There are a lot of really good views. I think it's very tight off the tee so driving is going to be pretty important this year. But it's nice and soft at the moment. Greens are quick downhill so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the week plays out with how they firm it up or speed up the greens.

This course reminds me of Avondale back in Sydney. There’s plenty of elevation change and lots of tall trees and they’re pretty close together. Once you’re in there, it’s hard to get out of. I think the person who drives it the best is going to be the one at the top of the leaderboard.

We’ve got a good squad here. There’s two pretty in-form players in Quinn and Phoenix. Quinn definitely hits a very high ball and that’s going to suit the Asian style of golf course. He’ll give it a red hot crack this week if his putter goes well.