China’s Guan Tianlang Stuns World Golf

        By staff reporter ZHU HONG 

WHAT were you doing when you were 14 years old? For most of us, the answer is probably something along the lines of playing PlayStation, kicking a ball with friends, or practicing a musical instrument.

For Guan Tianlang, however, the answer looks a bit different. He was playing golf – at the 2013 American Masters. And he didn’t just play; he wowed.

Guan became the first Chinese and the youngest-ever competitor at the Masters to “make the cut”; that is, to be either within 50 places of the lead or 10 strokes of the leader’s score after 36 holes of play. In doing so he entered the tournament’s final round, during which he performed well enough to win the Silver Cup for “best-performing amateur.”

Tiger Woods played a round with Guan during the Masters. One cheeky reporter decided to pose him the question, “What were you doing when you were 14 years old?” Tiger’s response was frank: “I was at home doing my homework.”

Memorable Debut

Golf players need to be naturally talented to succeed; hard work, while essential, will only take players so far. But even standing among the world’s most gifted players, Guan seems endowed with superhuman abilities. He took up the game at the age of four and participated in his first tournament at five. His parents remember him at eight years old watching the Masters on TV and saying he wanted to win the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Tour all within a single year.

No one has ever accomplished the “quadfecta” in a single year. Tiger Woods had won all four major championships by the age of 24, but even he was unable to tick them all off in 12 months. Guan has set himself the challenge.

Guan is nothing if not ambitious, but his high hopes are backed up by the brilliant wins he’s already racked up in his short career to date. He won the Junior World Golf Championship at age 11 and the China Open at age 12. At 14, he qualified for the U.S. Masters on golfing holy ground in Augusta, Georgia. There, he was recognized as a breakout star by golfing pundits worldwide.

Guan earned his place at the Masters after gaining victory over Pan Cheng-tsung of Taiwan, the silver medal winner at the Asian Games, at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championships in November 2012.

Some were skeptical as to whether Guan belonged at the Masters. As USA Today wrote: “Sure, he had earned his invitation fair and square by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur, but at age 14 – and without the length to take on Augusta National like the rest of the field – there were questions about whether the experience might overwhelm him.”

Guan shot back at the skeptics with a commanding performance on the course. He finished at 12-over 300, winning 58th place for the invitation-only event. His “making the cut” was the talk of the town after the event. He lowered the record for youngest to make the cut in a major by almost two years.

“Guan somehow got around 72 holes without recording anything worse than bogey. He also finished without a three-putt for the entire tournament. It was a smashing success,” wrote USA Today. American media also noted that with his every movement in the tournament Guan was unwittingly creating history – a history that belongs to both the Augusta National Course and his home country of China. Expect more history-making moments to come from the young golfing prodigy.

Guan Tianlang (second left) with junior golfers Stephen Faucheaux, Hunter McDermott and Bubby Demers at Lakewood Golf Club on April 20, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.