![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2670-1-e1763677411394.jpg\")
Kan Katano, a 16-year-old Japanese international student at Elim Christian College, is also a world-class amateur golfer making his mark in tournaments here and overseas. Photos supplied<\/p>\nKan Katano, a 16-year-old Japanese international student at Elim Christian College, is also a world-class amateur golfer making his mark in tournaments here and overseas. Photos supplied<\/p>\n
An east Auckland-based golfer claimed his first hole-in-one when it mattered most, in elite company at the recent Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (APAC) held in Dubai.<\/p>\n
Kanichiro (Kan) Katano, an international year 11 student at Elim Christian College in Botany, scored the memorable eagle on the par-three 11th hole of the elegant world-class Emirates Golf Club\u2019s Majlis course, where the highly competitive APAC tournament was contested over four rounds.<\/p>\n
The superb ace helped Katano end the third round in fifth place, though he slipped down the leaderboard in the final round the next day to still finish a very credible 14th in a field of the leading 120 amateur golfers from across Asia and the Pacific.<\/p>\n
He modestly says the result was \u201cgood \u2013 not too bad\u201d and admits to fighting sickness on the last day.<\/p>\n
It was Katano\u2019s first APAC tournament in 2025, and he was one of seven amateur golfers representing his homeland, Japan. New Zealand had three players in Dubai.<\/p>\n
The 16-year-old has been attending Elim Christian College for 18 months, has home-stay accommodation nearby, as well as close connectivity to east Auckland\u2019s high-class golf courses.<\/p>\n
The reason he\u2019s here, he tells the Times, is to improve his English language and golfing skills.<\/p>\n
His Japanese home city is Chiba, about 40 kilometres from the centre of Tokyo, and it\u2019s where his father Shinsuke encouraged him from the age of six to take a swing at golf.<\/p>\n
Shinsuke was in Dubai to witness Katano\u2019s APAC performance.<\/p>\n
His home course while in New Zealand is Pakuranga Golf Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a short, narrow course and I play and practice every day. The greens are very nice,\u201d says Katano, who also enjoys the local clubs of Howick, with its \u201cvery nice view\u201d, and Whitford Park.<\/p>\n
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Katano is enjoying his close proximity to east Auckland\u2019s excellent quality golf courses of Pakuranga, Howick and Whitford Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played a lot of high-level tournaments, and they\u2019ve all been good experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other New Zealand golf clubs Katano appreciates are the famous championship venues of Titirangi, and Paraparaumu, the latter being his first experience of a sand-based links course.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so windy and hard,\u201d he says of Paraparaumu, where he was contesting the Charles Tour\u2019s NZ Stroke Play Championships.<\/p>\n
Katano is in the top 300 of the world amateur golf rankings (WAGR) and has won three WAGR events in New Zealand this year, while finishing runner-up in the Auckland Stroke Play, and tying fourth at the national under-19 champs.<\/p>\n
He also finished in a tie for 19th in the boys\u2019 15-18 age division at the junior world championships in San Diego.<\/p>\n
Katano says he\u2019ll attend Elim Christian College and play east Auckland\u2019s golf courses for another two years, to complete school years 12 and 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, I want to go to an American university on a golf scholarship, and I want to improve my world amateur ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n
His favourite golfers are Tiger Woods, Rory McIllroy, and Sweden\u2019s Ludvig \u00c5berg, because \u201chis swing is so good\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s Fifa Laopakdee became the first player from his country to win APAC.<\/p>\n
For his victory at Dubai, the 20-year-old receives an invitation to the US Masters tournament and an exemption into The Open in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kan Katano, a 16-year-old Japanese international student at Elim Christian College, is also a world-class amateur golfer making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[171350,171351,64,63,171352,171353,171354,171355,171356,755,171357,171358,171359,171360,104668,171361,171362,171363,171364,171365,85,9244,171366,171367,171368,171369],"class_list":["post-299845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-apac-dubai","tag-asia-pacific-amateur-golf-championship","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charles-tour","tag-chiba-japan","tag-elim-christian-college-botany","tag-emirates-golf-club-majlis-course","tag-fifa-laopakdee-thailand","tag-golf","tag-howick-golf-club","tag-japan-amateur-golf","tag-kan-katano","tag-kanichiro-katano","tag-ludvig-aberg","tag-nz-stroke-play-golf-championships","tag-pakuranga-golf-club","tag-paraparaumu-golf-club","tag-rory-mcillroy","tag-shinsuke-katano","tag-sports","tag-tiger-woods","tag-titirangi-golf-club","tag-wagr","tag-whitford-park-golf-club","tag-world-amateur-golf-rankings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}