Joshua Bai adds to the Kiwi legacy at Pinehurst with North & South win

Men’s Scores

By Alex Podlogar

Over the years there have been several notable North Carolina Tar Heels golfers who have prevailed at the North & South Amateur and etched their names into history at Pinehurst.

Harvie Ward set it all into motion, winning the 1948 North & South, dispatching rival Arnold Palmer along the way. Other Heels followed like John McGough (1979) and Bryan Sullivan (1983). Davis Love III broke through in 1984 and Jack Nicklaus II made it three in a row for the Heels in 1985. Tom Scherrer (1990) and Jack Fields (2011) added to the legacy.

It’s a nice history.

It has nothing on the Kiwis.

Playing his fifth North & South, New Zealander Joshua Bai rallied from a 3-down deficit at the turn to beat Tar Heels golfer Keaton Vo 1-up to win the 126^th playing of one of the most historic amateur championships in the country.

“This place is always good to the Kiwis,” Bai said with a smile.

Bai joins countrymen 2005 U.S. Open Champion Michael Campbell and 2008 U.S. Amateur Champion Danny Lee as champions at Pinehurst.

“It’s very, very special,” Bai said. “It’s a place I’ve been coming to since I was a little, little kid with U.S. Kids. I won the U.S. Kids Worlds, but it took my fifth North & South. It just means so, so much to win here. This is like a second home for me.”

Bai did in style, chipping away at the steady Vo on the back nine. After missing a chance to pick up a win at the par-5 10^th, Bai used a deft up-and-down for par on 11 to cut the lead to two holes. He then birdied 12 to trim it even further, and matched Vo’s birdie on 13 to keep his momentum going.

A par on 15 tied the match, and then Bai made a pretty 12-foot birdie at 17, taking his first lead in the match, 1-up, as they headed to 18.

He promptly blasted his drive into the trees on the right.

Crouching down in the pinestraw right of the sandscape, Bail felt like he had a small window to the left. He aimed at the left greenside bunker and hit a wicked shot low and under a branch. The ball chased up the right side of the green, leaving him in position to close out the match.

“I didn’t have a lot,” Bai said of the shot, chuckling. “I hit those kinds of shots just messing around sometimes. In New Zealand, we have a lot of trees, and, well, I’ve hit these kinds of shots a lot. I thought, ‘Just hit it.’”

The rising junior at Florida has had a decorated career already, especially as a junior golfer. He was the runner-up in the 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley in Pennsylvania.

After prevailing in Pinehurst by enduring one of the hottest weeks of the year, Bai had one last thing on his mind.

“I’m hot,” he said. “I just want to get out of the heat. I want to get back home.”

New Zealand has welcomed champions home from Pinehurst before.