THE FLATS – Reigning NCAA Champion Hiroshi Tai has earned pre-season honors by three organizations ahead of the start of the 2024 fall season. The junior from Singapore was named Wednesday to the Fall Watch List for the Fred Haskins Award. And he has been named to pre-season All-America lists by Golf Channel and Golfweek magazine.
Tai is one of 25 collegiate golfers on the watch list for the Haskins Award, for which Christo Lamprecht was a finalist last year, and won by former Tech All-Americans David Duval, Stewart Cink, Matt Kuchar and Bryce Molder.
Tai became Tech’s fourth all-time national collegiate champion last spring when he earned a one-stroke victory at the NCAA Championship in Carlsbad, Calif. The three-time collegiate tournament winner was a first-team All-American by the Golf Coaches Association and a second-team choice by Golfweek magazine last year, finishing the spring ranked No. 38 in the Scoreboard NCAA individual rankings. He finished out of the top 25 only once in 12 events while playing No. 3 in the Tech lineup. The Singapore native enters the fall No. 22 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
He is one of five Yellow Jackets with significant collegiate experience returning for Tech, ranked 11th in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll, including Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands), who redshirted last year, Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.), who played four rounds for the Jackets at the NCAA Championship in place of the injured Lamprecht, and up-and-coming sophomores Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.), who each played 12 events as freshmen.
Tech begins a challenging fall schedule this weekend at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate (Sept. 6-8) in Knoxville, Tenn., and finishes it in late October with its second straight appearance in the East Lake Cup (Oct. 28-30) at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The Jackets also host their annual home event, the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, Oct. 18-20 in Alpharetta, Ga.
25 deserving DI golfers from across the country made the 2024-2025 Fall Watch List for the Haskins Award Presented by Stifel. We’re proud to recognize your commitment to the hard work that comes before the reward. Here’s to your success this season! pic.twitter.com/9WPqYOxJ6p
— The Haskins Award (@TheHaskinsAward) September 4, 2024
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