13 Year old makes history in Hong Kong

A 13-year-old Taiwanese schoolboy will make golf history in this week's Hong Kong Open when he becomes the youngest player to take part in a European Tour event.

Lo Shih-Kai qualified for the event, which is co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour, by winning the recent Hong Kong amateur championship thanks to a closing round of 66.

A Tour spokesman confirmed that Lo is the youngest by two years to play on the 31-year-old Tour, overhauling the mark set by Sergio Garcia of Spain who played in the Mediterranean Open in 1995 aged 15.

Lo recorded the lowest score of his career by carding five birdies and just one bogey over the Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club course to win the Hong Kong amateur title.

"I just tried to enjoy myself during the final round and I wasn't expecting to win," said Lo. "So I guess I didn't really have any pressure on me."

He competes in Fanling against six-times major winner Nick Faldo, who won the last tournament he played in Hong Kong in 1990 and is Lo's senior by 33 years.

The Englishman won his first major, the British Open, two years before Lo was born.

Faldo, who runs a junior talent development scheme, told Reuters he had not even taken up the game at 13.

"These young kids are getting good and I have two girls in my junior series, one 12 and the other aged 13, both of whom are on a two handicap," he added.

"I was throwing cricket balls around when I was 13. But if this young fellow from Taiwan happens to make the cut and I find myself paired with him, then it should be good for the guy because it will be such great experience."

Officials at the U.S. PGA Tour do not have details of the youngest player to compete in one of their events, although Bob Panasik is the youngest to have made a cut on the U.S. PGA Tour.

Panasik was 15 years, eight months and 20 days old when he made it through to the weekend at the 1957 Canadian Open.

The youngest player to compete on the women's LPGA Tour is Beverly Klass, who played four events in 1967 aged just 10.

Klass finished 51st at the Dallas Open, 46th at the St Louis Invitational, 44th at the Lady Carling Open and missed the cut at the U.S. Women's Open.

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page