Guan named SGA Player of the Month

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 30, 2013) -- History- making Masters sensation Guan Tianlang, 14, has been selected as the Southern Golf Association’s National Amateur of the Month for April. The Chinese schoolboy became the youngest- ever competitor at the Masters, then promptly became the youngest player ever to make the cut in one of golf’s four major championships.

Guan, from Guangzhou, China, wowed the golf world by making the Masters 36-hole cut despite a controversial one-shot slow-play penalty. His 73-75 first two rounds made him the only one of six amateurs to make the cut and thus won the honor as low am in the Masters.

Recent SGA Ams of the Month Winners March: J.J. Spaun, San Diego State | More April: Justin Thomas, Alabama | More May: Justin Thomas, Alabama | More June: Peter Williamson, Southern Am Champ | More August: Steven Fox, U.S. Amateur Champ | More September: Nathan Smith, U.S. Mid-Am | More October: Meghan Stasi, U.S. Women's Mid-Am | More March: Patrick Rodgers, Stanford | More

Later in April, Guan affirmed his rare talent by shooting a 3-under-par, second-round 69 to also make the cut in the Zurich/New Orleans PGA Tour event -- where he was granted a sponsor exemption into the field.

At Augusta, he won additional respect from the golf world with his classy response to the penalty ruling. Guan had gained an invitation to the Masters by winning the Asia- Pacific Amateur Championship last summer.

The Am of the Month award is selected by a national, blue-ribbon panel of golf officials, coaches and journalists. This year’s previous winner of the March-thru-October award was Stanford golfer Patrick Rodgers. The honor is one of the ways the SGA promotes and advances amateur golf, including its storied Southern Amateur, the 107th playing scheduled for July at The Club at Carlton Woods outside Houston, and the Southern Junior, set for play in June in Richmond, Va.