Chinese youngsters gunning to break golf's record books

China's Guan Tianlang astonished the world when he made the Masters cut at the age of 14, but his record as the European Tour's youngest player is set to be ripped up by a boy aged only 12.

In two weeks, Ye Wocheng, a precocious pre-teen from the country's south, will lower Guan's record to scarcely believable territory when he tees off at the Volvo China Open.

It comes just a year after Guan played the same event in Tianjin aged 13 and 177 days. He followed that with a bravura performance last week at Augusta National, finishing with the Silver Cup as the Masters' top-placed amateur.

Should 12-year-old Ye make the cut, he will easily outdo Hong Kong's Jason Hak Shun-yat, who became the youngest player to reach the weekend rounds of a European Tour event, aged 14 and 304 days, at the 2008 Hong Kong Open.

In Tianjin, Ye will compete for the spotlight with ultra-young Chinese players, including Guan and Andy Zhang, who became the youngest US Open competitor last year at the age of 14.

Bai Zhengkai, 15, is also in the field, thanks to his victory in last year's Volvo China Junior Match Play Championship, as is America's Jim Liu, who in 2010 became the youngest US Junior Amateur champion at 14.