ABU DHABI // Seldom in his promising career to date has Rickie Fowler been made to look like an old codger by a playing partner.
The extrovert American has always felt like the game’s most vivid bright young thing, right down to the garish orange get up he dons for Sunday play.
Yet the 26-year-old Californian was giving away a decade in age to one of his counterparts in the second match out on the final round at the National Course.
It is nearly two years since Guan Tian-Lang arrived in the sport’s wider consciousness, when he made the cut at the 2013 Masters aged 14.
The boy is becoming a man, now. Aged 16, he also made the cut on debut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
So steady has his progress been since his Masters introduction, he was actually underwhelmed by his performance on debut in the UAE despite making the weekend.
“It is my first time in the Middle East and I think I did all right,” said the Chinese amateur, who ended the tournament on 1-over par.
“All of my game has improved. My body has changed a lot over the past couple of years and that brings with it changes to the swing, so we have to keep an eye on it.”
Steven Munro, the director of the UAE PGA who caddied for Guan, was highly impressed by his temporary charge after a week on his bag.
He said the teenager was on the range from 8am to 5.30pm on each of the three days prior to the competition, and was “meticulous” in everything he did.
“He already goes about life like a top pro, he acts and behaves like someone who has been around for a long time,” Munroe said.
pradley@thenational.ae
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