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The Masters: Tianglang Guan makes cut despite slow-play penalty
Tianlang Guan
Tianlang Guan

By Beth Ann Baldry, Golfweek

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The scene was incredible. As Tianlang Guan approached the 17th green, European Tour rules official John Paramor walked up to the eighth- grader and showed him his stopwatch. Fred Ridley, chairman of the competition committee, sat in a nearby cart with a cell phone up to his ear.

Could it be? Did the greencoats of Augusta National really just hand out a slow- play penalty to Boy Wonder? Guan two-putted for what would have been a par. He walked to the back of the green, where he rocked back and forth on his heels. He then shook his head one time in disbelief. That’s about the extent of the physical reaction made by Guan, who with the one-shot penalty made 5 on the hole and slipped to 4 over for the tournament.

Guan hung back on the green to inform Ben Crenshaw of the situation, and then walked up to the 18th tee and split the fairway. After his approach found a greenside bunker, he hit the flagstick and then rolled in a 5-foot par putt to finish at 4 over par for two rounds at the 77th Masters Tournament.

He hovered at the cutline and had to wait several hours to find out if he’d be playing on the weekend. Mercifully, Guan got in on the number. No one wanted to see the youngster miss weekend play because of a slow-play penalty, even if it was deserved.

“I’m sick,” said Crenshaw after the round. “I’m sick for him.”

For Guan to save par on the 18th hole and give himself hope to make the cut was an incredible display of focus for any player, let alone a 14-year-old representing a country of more than 1.3 billion on golf’s grandest stage. The incident will likely only heighten Guan’s fame in Asia, where there’s a pipeline of talent that’s bursting at the seams.

“That shows you the fight in the brother,” said Carl Jackson, Crenshaw’s longtime Augusta caddie.

Jackson, working his 52nd Masters, also said rules officials could’ve “burned him yesterday.”

Anyone who watched Guan play the last 36 holes can say with certainty that he’s on the slower side of slow. When it was Guan’s turn to hit on the par-3 12th, he stood off the side of the tee for so long that members of the gallery questioned whether or not anyone in the 9:06 a.m. group knew whose turn it was to hit.

Guan never seemed to be off in la-la-land, staring at the clouds or smelling the azaleas. He was dialed into his round at all times. Here was an incredibly imaginative 14-year-old kid, playing in his first Masters, taking his time on every shot. He pulled off one brilliant save after another and left nothing to chance.

Matteo Manassero, the 19-year-old Italian who played alongside Crenshaw and Guan, said pace of play is Guan’s biggest concern. The problem, Manassero said, is that Guan asks too many questions before he pulls the trigger. Not because he doesn’t know the answers, but just to be clear in his mind.

“We all feel sorry,” Manassero said. “But this is the way professional golf goes. . . . This will end up being a great experience for him.”

Guan spoke with ESPN after his round and said that he respected the decision of the rules officials. He said he had changed his routine before coming to the Masters, but found it difficult to make a decision in the allotted 40 seconds because of shifting winds.

“I think my routine is good,” he said. “The only problem is I have to make the decision.”

Take for example the par-4 ninth. After Guan hit his tee shot right under a large Georgia pine, he left his approach shot short of the green. Guan did as most pros would, walking up to the green to assess the back-left hole location. Back at his bag, Guan, who was next to hit, took a few practice swings without a club, getting a feel for the shot. He then pulled a club and asked his caddie to clean it off. Guan then took a few swipes at the ground. He gave the club back to his caddie for a second cleaning. Only then did he hit a beautiful pitch shot that chased up the hill and onto the back fringe before trickling back down toward the flag, coming to rest within 3 feet of the hole. He walked away with a par and the admiration of fans, but it was a foreshadow of things to come.

On the par-4 10th hole, Guan’s group was deemed out of position. Guan was timed for the first time on the 12th hole and received his first warning after hitting his second shot on the par-5 13th. There was a conversation with Paramor walking to the 17th tee after Guan took lengthy time on the 16th green over a putt Crenshaw called “diabolical.” The penalty was assessed in the 17th fairway after his second shot exceeded the 40-second limit “by a considerable margin,” according to a statement released by Ridley, the Competition Committee Chairman.

Crenshaw, the two-time Masters champion who pointed out that they now play in threesomes rather than twosomes at Augusta for the first two rounds, was upset to see a young player he gave such high praise be pricked by something so rare – and seemingly arbitrary in professional golf – as a slow-play penalty on a day that brought pouring rain, strong winds and a sudden burst of blue sky.

An Augusta National official, when asked if the Masters had ever penalized a player for slow play, responded, “None that we are aware of.”

Did Paramor feel like he had no choice?

"I feel that every time I go out," he said. "That’s my job. It’s what I do."

As Crenshaw said, this part wasn’t pretty.

“He's 14, on a world stage, a beautiful player and he's played some beautiful golf,” said Crenshaw. “I told him I'm so sorry.”

OTHER AMATEURS MISS THE CUT

Guan was the only amateur to make the cut at Augusta.

Cal's Michael Weaver shot rounds of 78-74 and missed the mark by four shots. He gained entry to The Masters with a runner- up finish at the U.S. Amateur.

T.J. Vogel, the reigning U.S. Public Links champion, was also four shots out after rounds of 77-75.

Nathan Smith, in his third Masters start after his record fourth U.S. Mid-Am championship, missed the cut after rounds of 77-78.

Smith was two shots better than reigning U.S. Amateur winner Steven Fox, who struggled Friday with an 81 after a first-round 76.

Alan Dunbar, who earned his Masters berth by winning the 2012 British Amateur, shot rounds of 83-77.

Results: The Masters
58ChinaGuan TianlangChina60073-75-77-75--300

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One of Golf's four professional majors traditionally invites amateurs who have reached the finals of the US Amateur, or won the British Amateur or the US Mid Amateur. Also included are the winners of the relatively new Asia Pacific Amateur and Latin American Amateur.

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