There have been a couple of fantastic, long-form articles written in recent days about sport in this part of the world. The first comes from Brook Larmer, author of the 2005 book Operation Yao Ming which details the rise of China’s most famous sporting son. Writing in the New York Times, Larmer turns his attention to golf, describing a fascinating picture of the wealthy, driven parents of kids as young as eight essentially creating their own mini versions of the state-backed sports schools that have been so successful in churning out Olympians. Here’s an extract:
Manchester United finally – finally – have an official Sina Weibo page here after a shocking lack of presence here, filled largely by fan pages. For years, the powers that be at Old Trafford were arrogant enough to think that everyone would simply go to the team’s homepage, and the club has now also launched a Twitter page for the first time (@ManUtd). The site now has more than 100,000 followers (though always take Sina Weibo numbers with a sack of salt), as compared to close to four times that amount on Twitter. Nothing of particular note is up yet on the Weibo site – so far just a few pictures and headlines from their Asian Tour – but at least it’s a step in the right direction in trying to connect with Chinese fans.
When I wrote this profile of Cheng-Tsung Pan earlier in the week, it wasn’t because I thought he would win the US Open – he’s a 21-year-old amateur golfer who’s a sophomore at the University of Washington, after all – but because he’s a great story: the caddie mother, the father who taught him golf from books, arriving in the US on his own without speaking a word of English, and now one of the best amateur golfers in the world.
Cheng-Tsung Pan: 5’6″ but packing a punch at the US Open
Fearless prediction: he’s still not going to win the rain-delayed US Open, but it looks like he will make the cut by a mile. When bad light stopped play on Friday, he was halfway through his second round and standing at even par, 2-under for the day and one shot off the lead.
Last November, when 14-year-old Chinese golfer Guan Tianlang won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship to become the youngest player ever to qualify for the Masters, another young golfer missed out by the narrowest of margins. In second place, a single shot behind, was Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung, who fired a stunning 65 to close the tournament, six shots better than Guan’s final round.
Next week, the golfing world will be squarely focused on Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods as they play in a dream Nike pairing for the first two rounds of the US Open, with Masters champion Adam Scott also along for the ride.
But this week the women play their second major of the year, the rain-delayed LPGA Championship, and the marquee group was the tournament’s last three winners: China’s Feng Shanshan, Taiwan’s Yani Tseng and American Christie Kerr.
Some thoughts for the weekend… I’ll say upfront that I’m not a huge fan of Forbes, particularly when it comes to their sports coverage, but their annual list of the world’s 100 highest paid athletes makes for interesting reading. Two things are clear: the money is still in the US – 63 of the athletes are American; 73 are US-based – but the sponsorship business is a global one.
Tiger Woods is reportedly days away from re-signing with Nike
I seem to have been writing lots about golf recently, but there is more big news this week, this time on the women’s side. Taiwan’s Yani Tseng has just re-signed with IMG, in what could be a huge step to getting her career back on track. She’s only 24, but has fallen a long way from the highs of 2011 when she won 12 times, including racking up a fifth major championship.
Let’s start with the good: 14-year-old golfer Guan Tianlang – he of Masters fame – looks well on his way to making his third cut in four PGA Tour events this year, playing at the Memorial Tournament at the invitation of Jack Nicklaus. Despite two bogeys in the last three holes, his even-par round of 72 was good enough for =41st place after Round 1. This is a strong field: 20 of the 120 players have one at least one major, and Guan is ahead of 12 of them.
