OT: link to Masters scoreboard

[Blakeon18]

http://www.golfchannel.com/tours/pga-tour/2013/the-masters/

There is a 14 year old 8th grader playing.....youngest ever....qualified by winning some Asian amateur event.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Blake, His name is Guan Tianlang or maybe Tianlang Guan. He goes off at 12:24. The kid won the Asian-Pacific Amateur a fairly new event that is rapidly becoming one of the top amateur events in golf. The winner gets a Masters invite along with an invite to the final qualifier for the Open.

 

[Blakeon18]

Kids around that age are 'somewhat' commonplace in women's golf....Wie....Lexie Thompson....quite a few others
over the years. Incredibly unusual on the guy-side. If he breaks 80 I'll be surprised.

 

[vtcwbuff]

I think the reason that you see younger females is that they mature earlier physically. Most 14 year old males just don't have the power game needed to compete on courses set up for a tour event.

He finished with a 73 today, about middle of the pack. Five bogeys and four birdies, including the 18th. He's tied with Bradley and Steve Stricker. I'm impressed. I'm not clear what his status is. He's not listed as an amateur on the leaderboard.

 

[Blakeon18]

The 73 is fantastic...though the course did play soft and fairly easy. he is tied for 45th I think....top 50 make the cut...Go Kid!

VTC: I figure there is a book out there that could be written about how teen girls can compete on the LPGA while teen boys can't on the PGA tour.
Following those years....boys get much stronger and better....while the girls improvement is much less.

I am guessing that Michelle Wie at 13-15 would realistically be able to win teen boys' events....but not when the boys mature...as is evident in her
overall futile attempts to play men's events.

 

[vtcwbuff]

I've been an LPGA fan for a lot longer than I've been a UConn fan. I have seen most of the top women players in the last 40 years. I have yet to see an LPGA player that could compete on the PGA tour.

Wie is averaging 257 yds off the tee. Well below what she was hitting a few years ago. I once paced off one of her tee shots at 298 yds. That impressed the heck out of me but the reality is that the leading driver on the LPGA would rank near dead last on the PGA tour.