General: Highly-ranked junior player who enrolled at Georgia Tech in January of 2022 following two years of military service in his native Singapore … Won twice as a freshman, the fifth player in program history to win twice or more as a freshman, joining Luke Schniederjans, Cameron Tringale, Matt Kuchar, Bill McDonald (3 wins) … His collegiate and amateur performances to date elevated him to No. 69 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and he has given the Jackets a contender in the middle of the lineup … Ranked as high as No. 45 (American Junior Golf Association) and No. 40 (Junior Golf Scoreboard) nationally in his graduation year of 2020 prior to his 22-month military stint … Born in Hong Kong, he and his family have lived in Florida since middle school … Graduated high school in 2020, then entered the Singapore Navy for 22 months … Enjoys fishing, photography, swimming and boating … Enrolled in business administration … Earned Faculty Honors in both the fall and spring of his freshman year … Name is pronounced “her-RO-shee TIE”
2023-24: Tournament Results
Ranked No. 122 nationally in the Scoreboard NCAA Golf rankings … Did not qualify for the fall opener at Olympia Fields but has competed in all 10 events since, typically No. 3 in the lineup … Has finished lower than 25th only once, and has two top-10 finishes and five others in the top 20 … His top-10s came in back-to-back events this spring, seventh at the Watersound Invitational (210, -6) and fifth at the RE Lamkin Invitational … Also tied for 19th in the Amer Ari Intercollegiate, 12th at the Linger Longer Invitational and 16th at the Calusa Cup … Tied for 12th at the ACC Championship (213, even) … Tied for 25th at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational (211, +1) and tied for 14th at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational (212, -4) in the fall … Split his two matches in the East Lake Cup … Has Tech’s second-best stroke average at 71.04 over 28 rounds
2023 Amateur Highlights: Tied for 19th place at the Dogwood Invitational (281, -7) … Tied for 37th place at the Southern Amateur (214, -2) in Ooltewah, Tenn. … Tied for 57th place at the World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi (287, -1)
2022-23: Tournament Results
Played in every event for Tech as a freshman, earning a pair of collegiate victories and two other top-10 finishes … Tied for 18th at the NCAA Salem Regional (208, -8) with a closing 66 … Tied for 58th at the NCAA Championship and won the clinching point for Tech in the match play quarterfinals (19 holes over Roberto Nieves of Pepperdine) … Nearly won medalist honors at the ACC Championship, tying Michael Brennan of Wake Forest for first place after 54 holes (207, -9) before falling on the third playoff hole … Win his individual match against Duke in the semifinals (4&3 over Luke Sample) … Won both of his matches against Charlotte and Ohio State in the Ramblin’ Wreck Match Play the week before the ACC Championship … Tied for ninth at the Watersound Invitational (209, -7) to open the spring before struggling in the next three events before the ACC Championship … Won twice in the fall, closing out the season as medalist at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational (203, -13), prevailing over some of the nation’s top golfers … At the Maui Jim Intercollegiate, won the individual event at the Desert Mountain Outlaw course in a playoff after posting a 14-under-par total of 202 in regulation … Tied for 20th at the Inverness Intercollegiate (219, +6) … Averaged 71.50 over 31 rounds, fifth-best on the team … Went 4-3-1 overall at match play in three different events … Finished the spring ranked No. 208 in Golfstat and No. 92 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index after rising as high as No. 61 and 37, respectively, at the end of the fall season.
2022 Amateur Highlights: Tied for 58th (288, +2) and helped Singapore finish 21st at the World Amateur Team Championships in Paris … Competed in the International Series Singapore event on the Asian Tour and tied for 44th place (283, -5) … Tied for 10th place at the Dogwood Invitational (278, -10) … Tied for 38th at the Porter Cup (288, +8).
2021-22: Enrolled in classes starting in January of 2022 and did not play in a tournament that spring
High School: Played three seasons, one as team captain, for coach Kyle McClone at Windermere Prep, leading the team to a district championship in 2019 … He finished sixth in the 2019 Florida High School Athletic Association State Championship and led Windermere to a third-place team finish in Class 1A.
Junior Golf: Rose as high as No. 40 in the Junior Golf Scoreboard (No. 11 in his class) and No. 45 in the AJGA rankings … Peak of No. 521 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking … Began his climb up the rankings in 2017, finishing fourth in the Junior Orange Bowl International Championship and sixth in the Jones Cup Junior Invitational … In 2018, he won AJGA Junior in San Jose (including a hole-in-one), finished 13th in the AJGA Polo Junior Classic and 27th in the AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions, all major events … In 2019, he earned a top-15 finish at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, was 15th at the Southeast Asian Games and 19th at the Terra Cotta Invitational.
Coach Heppler on Hiroshi Tai: “Hiroshi was a highly accomplished junior player when he graduated high school and entered the military in his home country. He’s played a lot of national golf, and he’s an incredible student, which is a great match for both of us. We’re fortunate that we had what he was looking for. He’s had really good instruction, and his fundamentals are really good and simple. From an early age he was very competitive, and he got bigger and stronger and continued to progress within his class. He tried to work on his game when he had shore leave, but his fundamentals were so good that I’m not worried about him getting back to his form. He’ll enroll in January and be around our program for a semester and all summer and be ready to help us in the fall. The things that he learned about perseverance, toughness, grit, discipline, will be invaluable as he goes to college and competes. He has followed us throughout his military service, and he has as much enthusiasm for coming here as anyone we’ve ever signed.”
View this post on Instagram
Windermere Prep➡️ Georgia Tech with a little stop on the way. Can’t wait to be a Yellow Jacket. Thank you to my family, friends and coaches for all the support. #GoJackets @GTGolf pic.twitter.com/KK4INeHDQ0
— Hiroshi Tai (@HiroshiTai05) November 13, 2019
| Low | Par/- | Finish Top | |||||||||
| Season | Rounds | 54-holes | Round | Rounds | Events | 1 | 5 | 10 | W-L | W-L% | Average |
| 2022-23 | 34 | 202 | 65 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 586-369 | .614 | 71.50 |
| Totals | 34 | 202 | 65 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 586-369 | .614 | 71.50 |
