Former Windermere Prep golfer wins individual NCAA national championship

Windermere Prep alumnus and current Georgia Tech golfer Hiroshi Tai overcomes a three-stroke deficit to claim the solo collegiate crown.

By Sam Albuquerque
| 12:00 p.m. June 3, 2024

Sports
High Schools

Former Windermere Prep golfer, and now Georgia Tech sophomore, Hiroshi Tai overcame a three-stroke deficit at the start of Round 4 of the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship to claim the individual national title on the North Course at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in California.

Tai’s final score of 285 (-3) was enough to edge out six other golfers by a single stroke in a painstaking manner. After finishing his final round, which included a triple-bogey on 17, Tai had to watch the remaining groups fight to reach his final score.

Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent and Virginia’s Ben James, who were in the tournament’s final grouping, both missed birdie putts that could have won either of them the title on the last hole of the championship. Sargent’s missed putt — which confirmed Tai’s title — hit the edge of the hole and came out.

author

Sam Albuquerque

A native of João Pessoa, Brazil, Sam Albuquerque moved in 1997 to Central Florida as a kid. After earning a communications degree in 2016 from the University of Central Florida, he started his career covering sports as a producer for a local radio station, ESPN 580 Orlando. He went on to earn a master’s degree in editorial journalism from Northwestern University, before moving to South Carolina to cover local sports for the USA Today Network’s Spartanburg Herald-Journal. When he’s not working, you can find him spending time with his lovely wife, Sarah, newborn son, Noah, and dog named Skulí.