China unleashes its little golf Tigers

Golf writers, commentators, players and fans around the world are learning to pronounce new names and scrutinising Google Earth to find out where the cities of Guangzhou and Dongguan are on the map.

Hong Kong's neighbouring industrial cities have caught the attention of the sports world through the achievements of teenage prodigy Guan Tianlang. And the schoolboy who took on the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will not be the last off the production line.

Most of the population of Australia partied all day and into the night when Adam Scott became the first player from his sports-mad country to don the Masters' famed green jacket, but some of the limelight was stolen from the charismatic Queenslander when 14-year-old Guan made it through all four rounds at Augusta National.

Guan began his historic golf journey not in the US state of Georgia but in Zhejiang province, when as a 13-year-old he qualified to play in his national open - the Volvo China Open in Tianjin - last year, becoming the youngest player to compete in a European Tour event.

He then went on to record a wire-to-wire victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand, a win that brought with it the ticket to the prestigious Masters tournament.

Beijing-born Andy Zhang was also 14 when he made history by qualifying as the second alternate for last year's US Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco after Paul Casey withdrew with a sore shoulder and Brandt Snedeker scratched because of an injured rib.

Many golf writers and commentators shook their heads in wonderment after the Masters and simply put the teenager's remarkable achievement down to nothing more than a one-off, but then along came Ye Wocheng.