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
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.
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’s Majlis course, where the highly competitive APAC tournament was contested over four rounds.
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.
He modestly says the result was “good – not too bad” and admits to fighting sickness on the last day.
It was Katano’s first APAC tournament in 2025, and he was one of seven amateur golfers representing his homeland, Japan. New Zealand had three players in Dubai.
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’s high-class golf courses.
The reason he’s here, he tells the Times, is to improve his English language and golfing skills.
His Japanese home city is Chiba, about 40 kilometres from the centre of Tokyo, and it’s where his father Shinsuke encouraged him from the age of six to take a swing at golf.
Shinsuke was in Dubai to witness Katano’s APAC performance.
His home course while in New Zealand is Pakuranga Golf Club.
“It’s a short, narrow course and I play and practice every day. The greens are very nice,” says Katano, who also enjoys the local clubs of Howick, with its “very nice view”, and Whitford Park.
Katano is enjoying his close proximity to east Auckland’s excellent quality golf courses of Pakuranga, Howick and Whitford Park.
“I’ve played a lot of high-level tournaments, and they’ve all been good experiences.”
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.
“It was so windy and hard,” he says of Paraparaumu, where he was contesting the Charles Tour’s NZ Stroke Play Championships.
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.
He also finished in a tie for 19th in the boys’ 15-18 age division at the junior world championships in San Diego.
Katano says he’ll attend Elim Christian College and play east Auckland’s golf courses for another two years, to complete school years 12 and 13.
“After that, I want to go to an American university on a golf scholarship, and I want to improve my world amateur ranking.”
His favourite golfers are Tiger Woods, Rory McIllroy, and Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg, because “his swing is so good”.
Thailand’s Fifa Laopakdee became the first player from his country to win APAC.
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.
