14 year old excels at Masters

Two years ago, I was playing eighth grade basketball and soccer. I would come home and finish whatever homework I had been assigned that I had yet to finish. I'd play some Playstation. My point is, when I was 14 I was doing nothing remarkably different than any of you. And I certainly wasn't golfing in the most prestigious event in the entire sports, sharing a course with professionals.

Tianlang Guan did. Over this past weekend, the 14 year old Chinese teenager golfed 72 holes, and never hit worse than bogey on any one of them. He made the cut midway through the tournament, and finished a respectable 12 over. And he's excited to be here, excited with how well he did, and excited with the idea of how well he could do. When asked about whether or not he wanted to become more involved in local tournaments and become a professional golfer, Guan said, "It won't be too early because there's still a lot of things to learn, to improve. So nothing to rush." This attitude is often not the case with American college athletes, where becoming a professional and earning millions of dollars is often more important than earning a degree and finishing their education.

But I'd prefer that this doesn't become about Chinese or American superiority complex, because this is not a feat of Chinese greatness so much as it is a feat of human greatness. This young man is the best that anyone has ever been at the age of 14, and should be commended on it. I for one look forward to what should surely be a great career for Guan.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2013/04/14/14-year-old-guan-tianlang-finishes-masters-12-over/2081789/?sf11658398=1