Tech golf has established itself as a program with national pedigree. Last year was historic – junior Hiroshi Tai won an individual national championship, Tech alum Christo Lamprecht finished second in the PGA Tour University Rankings and the team made it to the semifinals of the national championship. Even with the Jackets being preseason ranked 11th and having the defending national champion, Tech golf is in unprecedented territory. Tech’s roster went down from 11 golfers in 2023-24 to eight this year, with multiple players never having played in a collegiate tournament and no seniors.
Can they maintain the program standard?
Amidst this uncertainty, Tai’s play will be a core piece for the team this season. He came into the season as the defending national champion, and ranked 29th on the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). Tai has been a key contributor to the past two NCAA championship runs and will be counted on this year as a team leader. The Technique had the opportunity to speak with him about his historic victory, summer, and plans for the upcoming season.
“It [the season] kind of starts all in August once everyone gets back to school. Our team will only be as good as our worst player. So I think everyone on the team really matters. All the little stuff we do, whether it’s waking up for workouts, going to class, doing our school work on time, turning in assignments on time, so we can show up to tournaments and not worry about that sort of stuff. All the little things kind of go into it and whatever all of us do as a whole, is the end result we get at the end of the year” Tai said.
Tai has been busy this offseason working on his game as well as playing tournaments. He received an invitation to compete in the U.S. Open because of his national championship win. The U.S. Open is one of the four major championships in professional golf and plays host to golf greats such as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Rory McIlroy. This tournament ended up being a fantastic experience for Tai.
“I got to speak with Matt Kuchar, a Georgia Tech alum, had breakfast with him. And then I was on the putting green at the same time as Tiger [Woods] when he was putting. So that was pretty cool. My caddie, who was my teammate from last year, were both like ‘Holy crap, that’s Tiger’. I also got to hit balls next to Xander Schauffele and Rory [McIllroy] But pretty much everyone grows up watching Tiger [Woods], so you see him walking to the putting green, it’s like ‘Oh crap, he’s here too’” Tai said.
Golf’s influence on Tai’s life is not confined to the course. “[You have to learn] how to manage your time to be successful at both of them [golf and school]. Whether or not golf works out or not, you will at least learn something from college and have a good education and a degree from Georgia Tech“Tai said.
Tai was not the only golfer to find success in the offseason. After deciding to redshirt last season, redshirt-junior Benjamin Reuter won multiple international events, including the Internationaux de France – Coupe Gordon Bennett and the Dutch National Stroke Play Championship, and sits inside the top 150 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). Apart from Reuter’s victories, sophomore Carson Kim finished in the top 10 of the Trans-Mississippi Amateur Championship and junior Aidan Tran had a nice showing in the Southern California Match Play Championship.
Last November, Tech signed two new freshmen to the team for this season, Albert Hansson and Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson both from Helsingborg High School in Sweden. This duo is a continuation of the pre-existing international pipeline established by Reuter and Tai. Both freshmen come into the season with a wealth of experience playing high amateur golf. Hannson participated in the last two U.S. Amateurs and both men competed in the Amateur Championship this past year.
“They are both really mature and know what they want to do when they get here. They both work super hard. It’s more outside of golf. Help them out with getting to workouts, where their classes are. On the course, you can’t ask much more than to hit the ball really good and work really hard and they’re doing all they can on the golf course to play well” Tai said.
This past weekend, the Jackets traveled to Loudon, TN to compete in the Visit Knoxville Open. While the eighth-place result was not ideal, there were bright spots, including great play from Hansson and Tai. The freshman finished at one-under par in his first collegiate outing in a tie for 18th, and Tai led the team at two-under par for a tie for 12th place.
Looking forward to the rest of the fall season, Tech will participate in four more tournaments including two in Atlanta, the East Lake Cup and their home tournament, the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational.. While they would love to win their home tournament, Tai and the rest of the team have their sights on the last three spring tournaments — ACCs, NCAA regionals, and the National Championship.