Is Tianlang Guan Playing Too Much on the PGA Tour?

Is Tianlang Guan Playing Too Much on the PGA Tour?











Ryan Ballengee May 16, 2013 9:46 AM


COMMENTARY | When you were 14 years old, what better things did you have to do than go to school and play golf? Not much.



So it's hard, then, to blame Tianlang Guan from taking another sponsor's exemption on the PGA Tour, playing in this week&
#39;s HP Byron Nelson Championship in Dallas.





For Guan, that will mark his third PGA Tour start of the year. He became the youngest Masters participant in history back in April, then became the youngest player to make the weekend at Augusta National. A fortnight later, Guan did it again, easily earning a spot in the weekend field at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.



It's pretty heady stuff from a kid whose head could grow a ballcap size overnight thanks to a growth spurt.



Now, however, he's making at a third start in a month and a half. For his part, world No. 1 Tiger Woods has played one tournament less in the Masters-to-Nelson stretch, with his win last week at The Players Championship coming in his first post-Masters start.



It might be a bit much for Guan, who can hardly be expected to continue making cuts like this.



Patrick Cantlay had a magical summer in 2011, shooting a record 60 in that year's Travelers Championship as part of a run of top-25 finishes while still at UCLA. He turned pro and, with pay on the line, the task got harder. However, in 2013, Cantlay has already won on the Web.com Tour and appears poised to head to the PGA Tour with membership and direct deposit privileges.



Then there's Lydia Ko, the Kiwi by way of Korean birth, who, at just 15 years of age, won the LPGA Tour's CN Canadian Women's Open last summer. She nearly won the Women's Australian Open to kick off 2013 for another phenomenal win. She's obviously closer to Guan in age, though Ko seems already in the same class as most of the LPGA players she can't even yet call peers because of the tour's age restrictions and her unwillingness to dive head first into what could be a deep pool, filled with money and fame.



Maybe that's the example for Guan. Follow Lydia. Enjoy this start at the Nelson and see what happens. Made or missed cut, call it a spring. Head back home. The opportunities will be there for him to return and play as he sees fit.



As he grows, mentally and physically, Guan will have to adjust. His game will change. His world view will change. Eventually, he will probably turn pro and try to become the biggest golfing name his country has ever known -- just in time, perhaps, for the 2020 Olympics. However, as Tiger Woods says so often, it's a process that must unfold naturally and be handled with care. Otherwise, there are plenty of cautionary tales in the graveyard of premature expectations.



Ryan Ballengee is a Washington, D.C.-based golf writer. His work has appeared on multiple digital outlets, including NBC Sports and Golf Channel. Follow him on Twitter @RyanBallengee.