Guan blending into young crowd
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, April 25, 2013
There was a time when a 14-year-old on the PGA Tour would be considered big news.
It's starting to feel like old news.
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Tiger Woods of the US (L) and Guan Tianlang of China talk as they walk down the fairway on the eleventh hole during the first practice round of the 2013 Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, USA, 08 April 2013. [Photo/icpress] |
Guan Tianlang tees it up today at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, which must feel like a significant step down from where he was two weeks ago. He played practice rounds at Augusta National with Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. He played in the Masters alongside Ben Crenshaw. He was in Butler Cabin when Adam Scott first slipped on the green jacket. Guan was the low amateur.
The emphasis should be on the Chinese teen's performance - the youngest to play 72 holes in a major, nothing worse than a bogey all week, no three-putts on some of the fastest, most frightening greens in golf - and not on his birth certificate. Age is just a number.
Teenagers have been dotting the professional landscape for the last decade.
Despite a one-shot penalty for slow play on the 17th hole of his second round, Guan still made the cut against a 93-man field at the Masters. Remember, it was only nine years ago when another 14-year-old - Michelle Wie - shot 68 and missed by one shot making the cut against a 143-man (and one girl) field at the Sony Open.
Morgan Pressel was 13 when she played in the 2001 US Women's Open, a record that was broken six years later by Alexis Thompson, who was 12. Thompson went on to win an LPGA Tour event when she was 16, a record that was broken last year by 15-year-old Lydia Ko at the Canadian Women's Open.
Ryo Ishikawa was 15 when he won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup on the Japan Golf Tour, making him the youngest player to win on one of the six major golf tours.
That record still stands. For now.
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