Guan (14) earns place at US Masters

Golf: China’s Guan Tianlang will create golfing history next April as the first 14-year-old to compete in the US Masters at …

Golf:China's Guan Tianlang will create golfing history next April as the first 14-year-old to compete in the US Masters at Augusta. The schoolboy earned a place by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand.

Guan held on after opening up a five-stroke halfway lead with sparkling rounds of 66 and 64 at the Amata Spring Country Club. His achievement comes five months after compatriot Andy Zhang played in the US Open at the same age.

Australia's Oliver Goss, who finished third, said afterwards that Guan was "too young to be intimidated."

When Guan tees it up at Augusta in April he will beat the previous record set by Italy's Matteo Manassero, who was 16 when he played at the year's first major in 2010. Guan is quickly establishing himself as Asia's latest golf sensation, becoming the youngest player to compete at a European Tour event at the China Open earlier this year.

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Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and South Korean Noh Seung-yul both burst onto the scene while still at school, blazing a trail for the next generation of Asian golfers. Ishikawa, 21, has nine Japanese Tour wins to his name, his first coming as a 15-year-old, while Noh, also 21, captured a European Tour title at the co-sanctioned Malaysian Open in 2010.