14-year-old from China to make US Open history

[ChinaToday]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Andy Zhang walked over to the driving range as just another teenager seeking an autograph from his favorite players, and instead had the gallery at The Olympic Club asking for his signature.

Welcome to the U.S. Open, kid.

All of 14 years old and preparing to start the ninth grade, Zhang is believed to be the youngest player in championship history. He was born in China and has lived in Florida since 2008, and about the only place he doesn't show his age is on the course.

Zhang held his own in a practice round Tuesday with Masters champion Bubba Watson and Aaron Baddeley. After shedding some early nerves, Zhang's smile - behind those big braces, of course - lit up the gallery and had everyone from Tiger Woods to Rory McIlroy wondering the same question.

Who is this kid?

Read more here: 14-year-old from China to make US Open history - Wire Golf - The Sacramento Bee

US Open 2012: Teenage whizzkid Andy Zhang, 14, can lead new revolution in China with record-breaking show

Here comes the bum-fluff brigade. Tiger Woods declared on that a 14 year-old’s record-breaking appearance in this US Open would herald a succession of rising sons from the east.

Woods has plainly not been as shocked as the rest of the Olympic Club at the news of Andy Zhang’s qualification as an alternate at the expense of the injured Paul Casey.


Believed to the youngest competitor in 112 US Opens, Zhang has also been claimed to be the youngest competitor in any major since Young Tom Morris in 1865.


To put it in further context, the Florida-based Chinese is nine years younger than Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman who last year became the youngest winner of the US Open in 88 years.


Zhang was actually born seven months after Woods won his first major. On his bag is fastened a name tag which shows his graduation date as 2016. Does Woods feel old? Or just worried?


“What helps is technology,” said the 36-year-old American, the leading fancy with bookmakers after a magnificent pitch-in at the 16th helped win him the recent Memorial tournament.

“These kids are now bringing out iPads to the range and watching their swing and breaking it down. I grew up in a VHS era and you always had to adjust the tracking. So you never really got the exact positioning of it.

“I saw a few of these kids over in Korea that they’ve only been playing the game for a year. And six months of it was all indoors hitting golf balls. All they did was put the club in the correct position to hit balls, hit balls, hit balls. They come out and they have perfect golf swings. That’s the new generation.”

As if to prove Woods’s point, the 6ft 1in prodigy was out on the course enjoying his first practice round, sending the ball into orbit and proving that his 70 and 72 in a section qualifier last week was no fluke.

He was in the company of the Bubba Watson, having put his name alongside that of the Masters champion for a 7am tee-off after discovering his inclusion on Tuesday evening. “My mid went totally blank,” said Zhang.

Zhang was born in Beijing, picking up clubs for the time aged six. His mother, Hui Lais, entered him a few junior tournaments and, when he was 10, gave up her job to take her talented child to Florida where he was signed up by the Leadbetter Academy. Since then he has flourished, beating adults on the mini tours, in his own words, “a bunch of time”.

“Andy hits it miles and miles,” said his coach Andy Park. “He’s got a very good head on his shoulders. He couldn’t speak any English when he got here, and now we can’t keep him quiet. He is very outgoing.”

Of course, there will be a debate whether it is wise for such a young teenager to be involved such a high-presser situation, but Woods did not see like it that way. “I tried it when I was 15 but didn’t make it - he qualified, he earned that spot. You’re not too young if you can do it.

“That’s the great thing about this game, it’s not handed to you. You have to go out and put up the numbers - and Andy did.”

As Woods intimated, this is not merely an extraordinary personal story. The interest in his homeland will inevitably spiral. Zhang’s feat is so well-timed. Last Sunday, Shanshan Feng became the first Chinese of either sex to win a major at the LPGA Championship.

And so the explosion of interest escalated, before Zhang threw in another detonator.

China has been waiting for a male golfing hero and, as always with the nature of hype, the speculation is already feverish.

For now, however, Zhang has two rounds to defy the bookmakers’ odds of 6-1 on him making the cut and, dare we dream, of the 5,000-1 on him winning the tournament.

The manner in which he has handled all the interest so far, suggests he could at least give the former a decent shot.

He is the boy living his boyhood dream, amazed that, as a competitor, he gets the use of a Lexus he is not old enough to drive. The sense of wonder will last all week.

While Zhang was being interviewed in the resplendent locker room he looked distracted and the journalists followed his gaze to a spread of chocolate bars on table.

“What, you mean these are free?” said Zhang. “I can really take as many as I like?” A kid in a candy shop, indeed.

US Open 2012: Teenage whizzkid Andy Zhang, 14, can lead new revolution in China with record-breaking show - Telegraph

 

[Fanling Monk]

Simply amazing! I guess Chinese golf is on the rise. We had a young Chinese woman won the LPGA, which is one of the four majors, over the weekend and now a 14 year old qualifies for the US Open, which is the biggest game in golf.

I hope his parents wouldn't put so much pressure on the young Andy though because this game can be very fickle and he can lose it very fast, ala Michelle Wie. My advise for him is just go out and enjoy yourself and making the cut would be fortunate.

 

[ChinaToday]

Shanshan Feng becomes first major winner from China at LPGA Championship

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- Shanshan Feng set two personal goals this year on the LPGA Tour. She reached them both with one memorable round.

Feng won the LPGA Championship on Sunday to become the first Chinese player to win an LPGA Tour title and a major event, closing with a 5-under 67 for a two-stroke victory.

"I am so excited right now," Feng said. "I did it! I don't know how to celebrate. It happened too soon. I'm going to miss my flight tomorrow. I might just go home. Who knows? I want to see my parents. I'm sure they want to see me."

More than likely.

The 22-year-old Feng, the only player from China on the tour, had the lowest round of the tournament at the right time and finished at 6-under 282.

Feng, who began the day three shots behind third-round leader Eun-Hee Ji, had a bogey-free round to etch her name in the record books, and her fourth top 10 of the year moved her to fifth in the world.

"For me, I never thought, `I must win.' I knew I was three behind (at the start), so I knew I had a chance," said Feng, who began playing golf at age 10. "I was focusing on very shot. If I win, I win. If I don't, I don't. It just worked out."

Stacy Lewis, bidding to win her third straight stroke-play event on the LPGA Tour, shot a 70 to tie for second with Mika Miyazato, Suzann Pettersen and third-round leader Eun-Hee Ji. Miyazato shot 69, Pettersen 70, and Ji 72.

Karrie Webb, who started the day one shot behind Ji, had a 72 to finish at 3 under. Little-known Gerina Piller, a star in college at UTEP, and Ai Miyazato each shot 68 to also finish at 3 under.

Paula Creamer had a 71, and Giulia Sergas and Inbee Park shot 72 to finish another shot back.

(Photos: LPGA Beauties)

Defending champion Yani Tseng had a closing 76 and was 13 over in a tournament she won a year ago by 10 shots.

Feng joined a growing list players who have broken through for their first career victory at the LPGA Championship. Anna Nordqvist in 2008 and Tseng in 2009 were the last two of the seven who have accomplished the feat.

"You knew it was coming at some point. I'm surprised she hasn't won out here," Lewis said. "She went out and won it. The goal was to go post a low number. That's what everybody was trying to do."

Over the first three days, Ji and Webb had notched the lowest score - 68 - on the Locust Hill Country Club course, its narrow fairways and long, thick rough providing a challenge worthy of a major.

Tseng last year and Cristie Kerr in 2010 won this tournament with 19-under scores, Kerr by a record 12 shots and Tseng by 10. With difficult conditions over the first three days, nobody was able to break away, and only 13 players began the day under par.

But under a blue sky with only the hint of a breeze, a breakthrough by somebody seemed likely. That it ended up being the only player from China with an LPGA card and no career wins didn't seem likely.

"Obviously, it means a lot for me because this is my fifth year on the tour," Feng said. "I was sad and I was even thinking, `Can I win again?' I won twice on the Japanese tour last year and it helped a lot. It helped me to have confidence again. Now, I know I can win again."

Feng made five birdies without a bogey, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and reaching 16 greens in regulation. She even laughed with her caddie after barely missing a birdie putt at No. 16, probably because she didn't know she was nursing a one-shot lead over Mika Miyazato.

"I wasn't looking at the scoreboard," Feng said. "I was on 18th green and I looked at the board and I was leading. I couldn't believe it."

Feng didn't allow an errant drive into a fairway bunker at the par-5 17th hole get her down. She hit her third shot 12 feet from the pin and made birdie for a two-shot lead that nobody challenged. She closed with a par, hitting her drive right down the middle of the fairway on one of the most difficult scoring holes on the course.

Unfazed when her second shot found rough at the edge of the green, she chipped inside 2 feet and made par to secure the victory.

"There was nobody with us before 16," Feng said. "Then on 17 at least 10 media people were around us. `OK, maybe I have a chance to win.' After I chipped (at 18), I looked at the board, so I knew I was leading."

The 26-year-old Ji is no stranger to Locust Hill, having captured her first career LPGA Tour victory here in the 2008 Wegmans LPGA, when the Rochester stop was a regular tour event.

She had eight pars and a bogey on the front side and a bogey at 10 dropped her three shots behind the leaders. She rallied on the back side with birdies at Nos. 13, 15, and 16 but couldn't keep it going over the final two holes.

Even with the gallery rooting hard, Creamer, a crowd favorite, was dreading this tournament because of the death in March of her 94-year-old grandfather, Tom, her biggest fan. She dropped on shot on the front nine and managed only one birdie on the back side.

The final twosome of Webb and Ji both hit great drives to start, and when Ji hit her second shot inside 8 feet, Webb duplicated it as a fan shouted "Game On!"

Ji missed, but Webb sank hers to tie for the lead at 4 under with Ji and Pettersen, who birdied the second and third holes.

Webb faltered with bogey at No. 3 as Pettersen continued a front-nine surge with a long birdie putt at the par-3 fifth hole. The long-hitting Norwegian star clenched her right fist and pulled her arm back in celebration as she gained sole possession of the lead at 5 under.

Feng had two birdies over her first six holes to move one shot behind and nearly took the outright lead at No. 8. But her eagle try slid just past the hole and she settled for a tie with Ji and Pettersen.

Pettersen won the 2007 LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock, beating Webb by one shot, but has had not-so-great moments in major play, having been a runner-up three times at Kraft Nabisco. The most painful was in 2007 when she lost to Morgan Pressel, blowing a four-shot lead over the final holes. She was solid on this day at the start and regained the lead with a birdie at No. 8, making the turn at 5 under.

A birdie by Feng at No. 12 moved her into a tie with Pettersen and the little-known Piller, who had only one top-10 finish since her rookie year two years ago.

Piller started the day at 1 over, five shots off the lead, but quickly made her way up the leaderboard with four birdies on the front side. Birdies at Nos. 11, 14 and 16 made her 9 under through a 19-hole stretch and moved her into a tie for the lead at 5 under.

But Piller found trouble at par-5 17th, which she eagled Saturday to begin her steady rise. She drove under a tree into the thick rough and her punch shot out clipped some leaves and she dropped two shots when her short bogey putt slid just past the cup.

Pettersen found rough on two straight shots at No. 13, chipped well past the pin and settled for bogey to fall one shot behind Feng. Pettersen drove the rough again at the 14th hole and again made bogey to fall two shots behind and never recovered.

Webb birdied No. 11 to reach 4 under again but gave it right back on the next hole when she drove into the rough and couldn't salvage par. Webb birdied Nos. 16 and 17, but like Ji her rush came too late.

Read more: Shanshan Feng wins LPGA Championship, becomes first Chinese golf to win major title | GOLF.com

 

[longyi]

Simply amazing! I guess Chinese golf is on the rise. We had a young Chinese woman won the LPGA, which is one of the four majors, over the weekend and now a 14 year old qualifies for the US Open, which is the biggest game in golf.

I hope his parents wouldn't put so much pressure on the young Andy though because this game can be very fickle and he can lose it very fast, ala Michelle Wie. My advise for him is just go out and enjoy yourself and making the cut would be fortunate.

From the tapes on TV, the kid obviously has a very natural swing and a good up and down games, given time and good guidance he can be one of the best. The competitions in PGA is much tougher than LPGA, so it take mental toughness to be on top.

It's not easy to have another Tiger Woods talent these days and even him, since the divorce, lost some of those cutting edge mental toughness the past few years. Although he matched Jack Nicklaus in total wins and will surpass him, but with 14 majors at age 37 it's not going easy to catch Jack's 18. It's sad we have so much hope for him before his hormone took control.

BTW you're right about Michele Wie, when she first came out I couldn't recall any talent of her caliber- a pure golf phenomenon. When they, her parents and promoters, put her up against the PGA pros, boy that must had mess her up.

 

[RazPaK]

Chinese are a very strong and good people. When Pakistanis praise china, we feel our brothers are getting respect. Salaam.

 

[Sonyuke_Songpaisan]

Oao,but most of the chinese people have never played this game and even dont know what the heell it is.

 

[Backbencher]

I hate golf . Such a boring and slow game

 

[jetti]

amazing.. he is , like , china's Shahid Afridi...

 

[Hafizzz]

China Makes Golf History Twice in One Week
China Makes Golf History Twice in One Week - China Real Time Report - WSJ

China, a country once renowned for its proletarian pride, is experiencing a surge in that most patrician of sports: golf.

Over the weekend, 22-year-old Chinese golfer Feng Shanshan claimed women’s golf’s LPGA Championship title by shooting 6-under-par for the week, becoming the first Chinese player to win a major tour event and title.

As if that weren’t enough, 14-year-old Chinese golfer Andy Zhang made history of his own on Monday by becoming the youngest player ever to qualify for this week’s U.S. Open after Briton Paul Casey withdrew because of a shoulder injury.

“It’s going to be a great experience, hitting balls next to Tiger [Woods],” Zhang, who also played a practice round with this year’s Masters winner Bubba Watson, told ESPN, noting his surprise that the older pros had been “very nice” to him and were giving him good tips. “I need to make sure I’m not in a dream right now.”

The triumphs of Feng and Zhang are a boon to China’s global sporting ambitions, though they’re the sort of development that probably sets Mao Zedong’s waxen body to spinning it its glass case on Tiananmen Square. Despite some claims that the sport was invented in China, golf was banned under Mao as a bourgeois indulgence. Even now, with the Communist Party having embraced entrepreneurs and luxury brands rushing to cater to the country’s nouveau riche, the sport remains a somewhat controversial hobby due to concerns over the growing tracts of precious arable land being appropriated to build courses.

That history is likely one reason that China– which reportedly only opened its first golf course in 1984 – hasn’t experienced the same success in the sport as some of its neighbors.

While Asian peers like South Korea dominate the golf circuit—the country has 24 golfers in the LPGA’s top 100—Ms. Feng is the only mainland Chinese golfer to appear on either the men’s or women’s top 100 rankings (though Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng is the women’s No. 1).

Estimates show the number of golfers in China ranges from 300,000 players to 3 million—still just a drop in the bucket in a country of 1.3 billion. But with golf set to reappear in the Olympics in 2016, the country known for coveting gold medals is placing a new emphasis on the sport.

One example of that effort, highlighted in a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency earlier this month, is a school in southern China’s Zhuahi city in Guangdong province that offers free golf training to kindergartners. Letting “children get in touch with golf is a good trial,” Liu Tie, head of the Industry Planning and Development Department of the Zhuhai Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, told Xinhua.

Helping to fuel the interest is the growing number—and increasing outlandishness—of golf courses in the country like the world’s largest Mission Hills golf club on southern Hainan Island, which continue to be built despite a nationwide moratorium on new courses.

Most recent available statistics suggest China has around 500 18-hole courses, compared with more than 15,000 in theU.S.

For her part, Feng told the LPGA she hopes that her success can help to inspire young golfers in Chinathe way tennis champion Li Na has.

“Hopefully [my win is] going to help golf in Chinabecause I want to be [tennis star] Li Na for golf in China. I want to be like a model that the other juniors can follow my steps and get on the LPGA,” she said. “There are good players fromChina, young players, right now. I became the first one, but I’m sure there will be a second, third, more people winning in the States and winning majors.

“I think, you know all of the Asians are good. That’s what my parents told me. All of the Asians are good at controlling small things. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I will say if Koreans can, Chinese can, and golf in China is really growing up and getting more popular. I believe in the futureChinawill be one of the strongest countries on golf.”

 

[Backbencher]

I'm asking this out of curiosity that is there any international golf course / stadium whatever its called in China .
I remember we have one in New Delhi

 

[Che Guevara]

Chinese are a very strong and good people. When Pakistanis praise china, we feel our brothers are getting respect. Salaam.

20+ years ago you country was feeling the same for USA remember..LOL

I hate golf . Such a boring and slow game

Me too but it is interesting to play....

 

[longyi]

I'm asking this out of curiosity that is there any international golf course / stadium whatever its called in China .
I remember we have one in New Delhi

There are hundreds if not thousands of golf courses that are on par with international standards and are building more.

I hate golf . Such a boring and slow game

I assure you once you hit the ball, which is not easy, nice and clean with a club, you'll not be able to stay away from the game.

Golf is a game that's very hard for a beginner but harder to mastered. Some people played all their lives and remained mediocre, but they don't regret one minute of it.

Golf is also a game where a little white ball teams up with nature to humiliate you and make you so frustrated you might throw your whole golf bag into the ponds, but early next morning you yearn for the game again.

 

[Fanling Monk]

There are hundreds if not thousands of golf courses that are on par with international standards and are building more.




I assure you once you hit the ball, which is not easy, nice and clean with a club, you'll not be able to stay away from the game.

Golf is a game that's very hard for a beginner but harder to mastered. Some people played all their lives and remained mediocre, but they don't regret one minute of it.

Golf is also a game where a little white ball teams up with nature to humiliate you and make you so frustrated you might throw your whole golf bag into the ponds, but early next morning you yearn for the game again.

The Lake Course is probably one of a prima donna course in the US. Long narrow doglegged fairways with small fast greens, one has to have a good drives in order to compete, especially they grow the rough long during the US Open. It'll be tough on young Andy because the cameras will be constantly on him.

14 years old for Christ sake! BTW, you played there, right?

 

[longyi]

The Lake Course is probably one of a prima donna course in the US. Long narrow doglegged fairways with small fast greens, one has to have a good drives in order to compete, especially they grow the rough long during the US Open. It'll be tough on young Andy because the cameras will be constantly on him.

14 years old for Christ sake! BTW, you played there, right?

Not in recent years but quite a few times before they 'Tiger Proof' the course. I can imagine how intimidating the skinny fairways look from the black tees. I played the course well then but I'll take a single digit now though.

 

[Sashan]

I hate golf . Such a boring and slow game

It needs technique and seasons of practice to get it right(I am not talking about mastering). The walking around is an exercise itself. If you do not want to go to the course, go to driving range and get a bucket of balls and whack it and you have exercised your core of the body hundred times.

If you watch it in TV, once you spend few mins, you will be hooked up.