14-Year-Old Makes Cut on Euro Tour
Friday November 21, 2008
Who is the youngest golfer ever to make a cut in a European Tour tournament? Before today the answer was Sergio Garcia, who was just over 15 years and 1 month old when he made the cut at the 1995 Turespana Open.
But not any more. As of today, the answer is Jason Hak. Hak is 14 years, 304 days old, and he made the cut in the European Tour Hong Kong Open with back-to-back rounds of 70. Hak is tied for 61st place after two rounds, tied with, among others, Rory Sabbatini. Among the players Hak beat are Nick Faldo, Arjun Atwal and Daniel Chopra.
Hak didn't sneak in, either - he finished birdie-birdie to get above the cutline. Hak was born in Hong Kong but lives near Orlando, Fla.
Update: Hak finished 75th with a 1-over total of 281. His scores were 70, 70, 73 and 68.
Comments
What is with these modern day athletes? Initially we saw this trend in tennis where every second day we saw young boys and girls competing with the very best at the highest level and now the same is happening in golf. For a sport like golf one wouldn’t be very surprised to see a person older than the average age play well in a big field but to see young chaps come through is incredible. Just recently we had Alexis Thompson, the young 12 year old who qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open and now we have this kid who has managed to make a mark in the big league.
The youngster from Hong Kong who is still an amateur has done exceedingly well to make the cut and it definitely bodes well for him. And if he can emulate the success of the guy whose record he has broken then a very bright future lies ahead for young Hak. Also the point to keep in mind is that he didn’t quite embarrass himself in the third round, which might not have been great but it was the kind of round some people on top of the leaderboard played. So, way to go young man!
Play well.
Andy Brown
GolfSwingSecretsRevealed.com/blog