Easing the learning curve
Guan Tianlang benefits from Nick Faldo's counsel as the Chinese teen prepares to become the youngest player on Augusta's storied fairways
It's only when Guan Tianlang sits down that his tender years become apparent and you begin to question whether the enormity of the situation that is upon him has well and truly sunk in.
Outside the conference room at the Mission Hills complex in Dongguan, a collection of the region's brightest junior talents have gathered in preparation for the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final. Youth, in fact, has been in abundance and you can forget for a moment just how young some of these golfers are.
But now, separated from the pack, Guan looks exactly like a 14-year-old - slightly distracted, slightly nervous even as he moves in his seat and casts his gaze around the room.
And you can put that down partly to the fact he's about to be interviewed and partly to the fact that sitting there beside him is Sir Nick Faldo, at 55 a man who has seen and done all the things that fill every young golfer's dreams.
What the world knows about Faldo is that he is a six-time major championship winner with three of those victories coming at the hallowed grounds of the Augusta National in Georgia. What we know about Guan is that when this year's edition of the US Masters kicks off around that course on April 11, the Chinese starlet will be the event's youngest-ever player, having qualified with a victory at last year's Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand.
And so we are gathered to witness what becomes, in turn, part interview, part advice session between two golfers sitting inches apart but also at the very ends of the golfing universe.