Earlier this month, 14-year-old Guan Tianlang of China used a belly putter to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur, thereby qualifying for the Masters.
With a series of gutsy chips and clutch putts on Augusta National's pool-table slick greens, Guan notched four birdies and carded a 1-over-par 73, two shots better than Bubba Watson, the defending champion.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
Tianlang Guan, the 14-year-old sensation at last week's Masters, tees it up again Thursday at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
WSJ: Tianlang Guan and the Sport That Eats Its Young | Golf Journal by John Paul Newport
There was the one-shot penalty called against 14-year-old Guan Tianlang that nearly kept the Chinese teen from becoming the youngest player to make the cut.
Woods's violation is all the more problematic because of his comments on the decision to penalize 14-year-old Guan Tianlang Friday one stroke for slow play.
In many ways though, the day belonged to 14-year-old Guan Tianlang.
To earn an automatic entry into the Masters, Guan won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last November, by sinking a 5-foot par putt on the final hole.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old from China, went his second straight round without a birdie and had a 77.
Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old amateur from China, shot 70 in his second tournament since making the cut at the Masters.
The world of golf may have glimpsed its future Thursday in the form of Guan Tianlang, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Guangzhou, China.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
Guan Kaiyuan, a 22-year-old law student at the China Institute of Industrial Relations in Beijing, had pointed out that Prof Kong's self-composed Tang Dynasty-style poem on his microblog did not rhyme correctly.
On the 18th hole, Guan stood over his 12-foot putt from the fringe and rolled it perfectly to the edge of the cup, then pumped his fist as it dropped into the hole.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
In 2005, Guan finished fourth in the 6-and-under category at the San Diego Junior World Golf Championships.
China's teenage star Tianlang Guan battled his way to five-over par 77 to leave the 14-year-old amateur nine-over par for the tournament.
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Others included Guan Yi, a wealthy Beijing-based collector, and Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman and former ambassador to China, whose collection of contemporary Chinese art is now on show in Bern.
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Guan had a bogey at the par-3 second after his tee shot off the back of the green.
Paramor informed Guan he was being assessed a one-stroke penalty, and they had an animated discussion for several minutes.
China's teenage star Guan Tianlang battled his way to five-over par 77 to leave the 14-year-old amateur nine-over par for the tournament.
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Two days after the fact, the media, both social and traditional, continue to percolate with speculation that other players wouldn't have received the same treatment, particularly after Augusta officials on Thursday took a harder line with the 14-year-old Chinese phenom Tianlang Guan.
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Tournament officials were ridiculed Friday for assessing a one-stroke slow play penalty upon a 14-year-old phenom from China, Guan Tianlang, on a day in which multiple groups slogged through the course for five hour rounds.
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Guan, who started playing golf as a four-year-old, claimed the world junior crown last year in San Diego by 11 shots on the back of a flawless first-round 63, featuring nine birdies.
After Guan qualified for the Masters, Ho, the Lion Lake owner, built a practice green with low-cut grass to match the speed of Augusta National's, and allowed only Guan to play on it.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
Guan Tianlang had to sweat it out, but the 14-year-old from China became the youngest to ever make a cut in a PGA Tour event.
"I really couldn't be happier -- I'm so excited right now, " Guan said on the European Tour website.
On his second shot at the 17th hole, Guan took considerably longer than 40 seconds and was given the one-shot penalty.
WSJ: At the Masters, the Eighth-Grader Gets Detention | Golf Journal by John Paul Newport
On a day when countless eighth graders across the country saw their orthodontists and fretted over potential dates for the middle school graduation dance, Guan calmly played in the world's most famous golf tournament in a threesome that included Ben Crenshaw, the 61-year-old former Masters champion who is old enough to be Guan's grandfather.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
For breakfast Thursday, Guan ate a typical Chinese breakfast of potatoes with meat, rice and stir-fried eggs, showing no sign of nerves, his mother said.
WSJ: Guan Tianlang: A Schoolboy Steals Day One of the Masters
In part, Guan's popularity lies in a pragmatism not usually associated with the avant-garde: "After one year in Australia, I realized that many of my friends were sticking to Chinese ways, " he says.
Guan will be playing at the U.S.Masters after winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last year on the same Amata Spring Country Club in Thailand where the qualifying is taking place.
Guan was penalized a stroke for slow play, which had some prominent golfers wondering why the Masters rule-men made an example out of a kid when plenty of adult players, like Kevin Na, are guilty of the same thing every week.
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