Tai's Long Journey to Masters

S'porean, 23, just two days away from debut at one of golf's most prestigious events

- Rohit Brijnath

In the early years of this century, a young boy gets special permission to use the range at the Singapore Island Country Club. He's five years old, but his immediate love of golf is quickly advertised in his persistence. He won't leave the range, just hitting bucket after bucket of balls till a blister appears and his finger bleeds.

That boy is now two days away from his Masters debut.

Hiroshi Tai is 23, ready, his putter polished, his golf balls marked with a black line, his ball marker from the East Lake Golf Club where the legendary Bobby Jones, co-founder of the Masters, came from. He is also no longer a boy.

Just ask Georgia Tech's assistant coach Devin Stanton, a former baseball player from the university who will caddie for him in Augusta and is impressed by his stint in the Navy.

"He did the two years of military service right out of high school," says Stanton. "And without a doubt, he was the most mature freshman I had ever seen. He came in and he was a grown man."

In Augusta are Tai's sister Yoko, a plus-two handicap golfer, and his parents Yukiko and Jacky. He's Singaporean and she's Japanese and if Hiroshi can't speak her language he can understand it. "He knows," smiles Yukiko, "when I am scolding him in Japanese."