Young Chinese Phenom Guan Sticks With PGA Tour

After being the youngest-ever player to make the cut at the Masters, 14-year-old Chinese amateur Guan Tianlang will try his luck at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this weekend.

Hey, why not? Michelle Wie was 14 when she received her first of four sponsor’s exemptions at the men’s Sony Open in Hawaii in 2004 (she got four in total, but never made the cut). Guan might as well give it another go: he finished with a 12-over-par 300 and ended up 58th.

He certainly seemed composed at Augusta — cool, calm and collected far beyond his years. He didn’t have a single three-putt all weekend. Not only that, Guan is already familiar with the area: last year, he was at the Lakewood Golf Club in New Orleans… as a guest instructor at a kids’ golf clinic.

Guan is not letting his sudden fame get to his head. The eight-grader is sticking to his routine to get ready for the TPC Louisiana event: practicing, studying and swinging while dealing with a touch of “homesickness.” He says he misses his native Guangzhou, China, but there’s no time for that now: he’s back in the thick of things against the likes of Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Keegan Bradley.

Because of his age, now some talk is focusing on whether it’s all happening too quickly for Guan. As mentioned earlier, it took a long time for Wie to make her mark: she has won only two tournaments since turning pro nine years ago. Others who broke early — including Ryo Ishikawa, who won at 15 on the PGA Asian tour, and Ty Tryon, who earned his PGA Tour card at 17 — have also fizzled out just as quickly. Guan seems to be taking this all in stride, though.

“I want to enjoy the week like in the Masters and, hopefully, make the cut. If not, it’s still a great experience. I hope to (post) good scores out there,” Guan said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s a challenging golf course, but it depends on the weather and where they put the tees and the pins. So it’s not an easy week too. … I think this is also a big course for me. I need to putt it good, I think.”

If he keeps this up, let’s hope his mom has plenty of energy bars and juice boxes packed and ready for her young phenom — he’s going to need them.