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.
Lists like SportsPro magazine’s Most Marketable Athletes [full list below] are equal parts inspired and enraging. I love the fact that Brazilian Paralympian Alan Oliveira (no. 17) is included, combining his age, talent and good looks with the undoubted boost to Brazilian sport that the next World Cup and Olympics will bring, almost as much as I hate the selection of Seth Jones (39), who is largely unknown even within his own sport, and, at 18, may not even play a single NHL game in the next three years even if he later develops into an All-Star.
Who would you rather have advertizing your brand – Katie Walsh (50) or Li Na (not on list)?
Here’s my article in this month’s That’s Beijing magazine, which is now online, but was written before Dou Zecheng’s heroics at the China Open 10 days ago. The key to being the next Chinese golfing superstar? Money.
This kid is impressive. OK, so he’s not the 12-year-old, he’s not the 14-year-old, he’s not even the 15-year-old, but 16-year-old Chinese golfer Dou Zecheng followed up his 2-under-par round of 70 on Thursday with an even-par 72 on Friday to make the cut at the Volvo China Open with two shots to spare. Dou sits tied for 36th place in a field that has just been reduced from 156 to 68.
Some of those who didn’t make the cut: Spain’s Alvaro Quiros, a six-time winner on the European Tour, Ryder Cup legend Paul McGinley and 29 of the 32 Chinese players in the field (and Dou is currently ahead of both of the other Chinese who did make the cut, Huang Wenyi and Liang Wenchong).
He’s still ten shots off the lead, after Finland’s Mikko Ilonen shot a course record 63, but Dou’s second round was perhaps more impressive than his first: the attention that had previously been squarely on 12-year-old Ye Wocheng’s shoulders at the start of the tournament had shifted onto Dou on Friday and he rose to the occasion beautifully, even reaching -4 for the tournament early in his round. [UPDATE: Dou shot another even-par 72 in Saturday’s third round, and a final round of 73 saw him finish tied for 33rd.]
With all the attention at this week’s Volvo China Open on 12-year-old Chinese qualifier Ye Wocheng, it was perhaps no surprise that he shot a 7-over-par 79 in Thursday’s first round. But these Chinese youngsters just keep coming… 16-year-old amateur, Dou Zecheng, shot a 2-under-par 70, and sits tied for 11th, four strokes off the lead.
Dou Zecheng: a young-looking 16-year-old
Dou may not be as famous as fellow Chinese teens Guan Tianlang, who made the cut in this year’s Masters, or Andy Zhang, who qualified for last year’s US Open, but he’s been on the radar for a while. His best achievement to date was a fourth place finish in the stroke play section of last year’s US Junior Amateur Championship, though he lost in the Round of the 16 in the subsequent match play competition. He is currently the top ranked junior golfer of those set to graduate in 2015, and number 8 overall.
16-year-old Jim Liu, number 2 overall in the junior ranks, is also playing in Tianjin. He’s an American, born to Chinese parents, and became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion in history in 2010 (beating Tiger Woods’ record), but struggled on the front nine on Thursday, hitting the turn in +6, and finished with a 5-over-par 77, and 15-year-old Bai Zhengkai posted an 11-over-par 83. Meanwhile, Andy Zhang is NOT playing: he pulled out this week through injury. Continue reading 12-year-old golfer upstaged by 16-year-old veteran→
Golf is on the up in China: 14-year-old Guan Tianlang made global headlines when he made the cut at the Masters last month; now it’s the turn of 12-year-old Ye Wocheng, who tees off in the European Tour’s China Open on Thursday in Tianjin. And Nike is due to announce the signing of two Chinese golfers in the coming days, just one more sign that the sport stands on the verge of a breakthrough in China…perhaps. Here’s my Sports Talk column on the perils of overhyping teen (and pre-teen) phenoms:
Potential, promise, upside… These are just some of the buzzwords used to describe how good something or someone could become. Whether the terms are applied to a financial investment or a budding sports star, it’s a large part of creating excitement about the future.
Ye Wocheng, 12, will go into the record books on Thursday
Even Homer Simpson knows statistics can be used to prove anything. That’s particularly true in China, where data is not known for being the most reliable. Whether it’s GDP figures, box office numbers or internal accounting, numbers in China are best taken with a sack or two of salt.
For all the attention lavished on Guan Tianlang last week, here’s a bit of context: his Weibo followers have swelled from about 20,000 a week ago to 28,000. Compare that to Chinese tennis star Li Na who has more than 21 million fans.
Numbers in China are notoriously hard to check, especially on a place like Weibo where fake and inactive accounts vastly outnumber real ones, but the point is clear: Guan barely registers on China’s sporting radar despite last week’s heroics. In fact, my guess is that his week at Augusta raised his international profile far more than his Chinese one, and that tells you everything about how far the game of golf still has to go here.
Guan Tianlang getting some love on the Masters.com homepage
Some of those who didn’t make the cut: Spain’s Alvaro Quiros, a six-time winner on the European Tour, Ryder Cup legend Paul McGinley and 29 of the 32 Chinese players in the field (and Dou is currently ahead of both of the other Chinese who did make the cut, Huang Wenyi and Liang Wenchong).
