Nov. 22, 2017
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Class of 2018 Notre Dame men’s golf signee Taichi Kho will be participating in a career milestone event this week after earning a spot in the European Tour event – the 2017 UBS Hong Kong Open.
At the qualifying tournament at Fanling, Kho shot a nine-under par after 36 holes, outlasting 26 amateur and professional Hong Kong nationals to claim the top spot on the leaderboard and advance to his first UBS Hong Kong Open.
“I feel like it’s a level up and taking in the experience will be a huge learning curve,” Kho stated. “Every pro there is doing this for a living, so I want to see them practice and prepare, and I want to see what makes them so good.”
The 59th edition of the event will be held from Nov. 23-26 at the Hong Kong Golf Club. The tournament is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and Hong Kong Golf Association and will be headlined by 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia and Rio Olympic Gold Medalist Justin Rose.
“What I’ve found over the past few weeks is that I play best when I focus on my own game – focusing on specific targets. I need to be in the right mindset and use the pressure for something positive,” Kho explained.
Kho, who signed his national letter of intent on Nov. 14, most recently competed at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championships in New Zealand and Malaysia, in addition to previously winning the Mission Hills Jack Nicklaus Junior Championship.
Kho is also the reigning Hong Kong Junior Open and Close champion, who in January of this year beat a host of local professionals to win the HKPGA Order of Merit.
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Josh Bates joined Fighting Irish Media as associate athletics communications director in July of 2017, serving as the women’s basketball and men’s golf contact. Bates earned both his bachelor’s (2011) and master’s (2014) degree in sports management from the University of Illinois. He also worked as a grad assistant at Illinois from 2012-14 and worked full-time at Tulane University from 2014-17.