Chinese teenager Guan already too cool for school

'Team Langlang'

Nicknamed LangLang, Guan started swinging a club for fun at the age of four and was already impressive enough at six for his Guangzhou doctor father Guan Hanwen and mother Liu Hongyu to invest heavily in his future.  

"The family made a decision when he was six years old that they were going to focus on his golf career," said Webb. "They're a team, the three of them. Like Team Tiger, they're Team Langlang.

"His mum has always dressed him in PGA tour clothes. He's always looked like a miniature PGA guy."

Team Langlang were with him at the Australian Open, his father chipping in to remind him to explain that a change to three of his clubs had also contributed to his disappointment in the first round.

Guan said he thought it was his driving he needed to work on most.

"My short game is pretty good right now," he said. "I think right now I have to be stronger and get more distance but I can't train too hard right now. I need to get more power to draw the ball, fade the ball."

Webb said Guan had shown from a young age that intensive study of televised golf had given him plenty of flexibility.

"He could show us five different swings when he was six," he recalled. "Most people when they're six in China have no idea who Chris DiMarco is, but he did.

"Jim Furyk, a little more obvious, Ernie Els, and of course Tiger Woods and his own swing. He could mimic the characteristics of all four of those PGA tour players. It was really amazing."

Clearly knowledgeable about the game, Guan was astonished when asked if he knew who Watson was before he came to Australia.