A weekend at the Masters was worth the wait for Guan Tianlang.
The 14-year-old from China became the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters on Friday afternoon, some six hours after a one-stroke penalty for slow play left him on the bubble.
I made it, he said afterward on Weibo, China's version of Twitter. I hope I can make more miracles, more dreams come true. I want to thank my parents and everyone who cared, supported and helped me.
Guan had to wait until the very last group finished to know if he was in or out at Augusta National. He finished at 3-over 75 for the round, giving him a 4-over 148 total. The top 50 players made the cut, as well as those within 10 strokes of the lead. Jason Day got to 6 under with two holes still to play but he missed a birdie putt by inches on 17, and was in the sand off the tee on 18.
Obviously it's an amazing achievement to get to the weekend at Augusta. And being able to play and experience what he's going to experience on the weekend, you can't buy that stuff, Day said. I talked to him earlier and he seems like a really, really good kid. It's unfortunate that he received the penalty, but he can learn from that and move on and hopefully can play well over the next two days.
For all the talk of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, Guan added a buzz to the Masters. An eighth grader who arrived at Augusta National with textbooks stuffed in his bag, he is the youngest player ever at the Masters and the youngest at any major in 148 years.
