What were you doing aged 12?
Collecting football stickers? Playing computer games? Planning life as a teenager? How about playing in a European Tour event?
Three years ago, China’s
Ye Wo-cheng
became the youngest player in history to feature in a European Tour event when he teed it up at the Volvo China Open aged just 12 years and 242 days old.
Branden Grace, who was defending champion at the Volvo China Open that historic week, was full of admiration for Ye's incredible achievement.
“It’s amazing,” said the South African. “I only started playing the game at 11, so I wouldn’t like to think what handicap I was playing off when I was 12!”
Despite missing the cut, Ye impressed with two sub-80 rounds and etched his name into European Tour history, beating the previous record held by
Guan Tian-lang
by nearly a year. Guan went on to become the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters the following year aged just 14.
Plenty of other big names have also made headlines at a young age on The European Tour.
Sergio Garciamade history at the 1995 Turespaña Masters when he made the cut aged just 15 years and 42 days old, a record that has been beaten twice since.
Matteo Manassero, meanwhile,holds two records as the youngestand second youngest wins on The European Tour.
The Italian won the Castelló Masters in 2010 aged 17 years and 288 days old before picking up his second win at the Maybank Malaysian Open just 175 days later.
