It’s the 1979 Masters, and an inquisitive American golf writer is chewing the fat with Australia’s Jack Newton when he starts interrogating him about his new mate Seve Ballesteros. The young Spaniard had threatened the leaders all week at Augusta National, turning heads with a dazzling display of shot-making before eventually settling for a tied-12th finish alongside Newton. The Yanks wanted to know more. “What about this kid, Ballastinos or something. What’s his name?” the scribe asks Newton. “Well, you’d better learn how to spell it. Because he’s going to be around for a while and he’s going to win a lot of tournaments. And big ones,” Newton deadpanned.
Twelve months later that same young Spaniard returned with a claret jug and won the famed green jacket. Newton finished equal second as an undisputed legend was born.
Those same conversations could take place again someday soon, this time about a 16-year-old Sydneysider who, ironically, is a product of Newton’s bountiful junior golf foundation. Jeffrey Guan is his name… that’s Jeffrey with a ‘J’ and Guan, ‘G-U-A-N’. Remember how to spell it. Because he’s going to be around for a while and he’s going to win a lot of tournaments. And far bigger ones than he’s already claimed. Is this kid the next Seve? No. Could he be Australia’s Next Big Thing? Time, of course, will be the judge. But the early signs are ridiculously good.
Every now and then, those of us in golf media get a tip-off about a young player that we should keep a close eye on – a phenom, if you like, who could be The Next One. But it’s rarely good oil. Anecdotal evidence suggests just 0.006 percent of those who dare to dream and attempt to qualify for the PGA Tour actually achieve the feat. That’s about 1 in 17,000 for those playing at home.
Occasionally, though, the crystal-ball brigade gets it right. Adam Scott and Jason Day immediately come to mind, and more recently, Cameron Smith. They also warned us about LPGA star Minjee Lee years before she would go on to become world No.2. The common denominator? They all showed standout ability in the junior ranks, yes, but they had something extra special between the ears, a robotic ability to block out everything in order to execute the right shot, almost every time. With that came the habit of winning, and an aura among their peers, like everyone else was playing for second.
Well, Australia, there’s another one.
When we were first alerted about Bexley Golf Club junior Guan, we treated it like any other suggestion: Duly noted. We’ll keep an eye on him, for sure.
But it quickly became apparent we were dealing with a different kind of talent. The phone calls kept coming. Not from family or friends wanting to get their boy some media attention; they came from fellow players, administrators, coaches and even equipment companies.
“You’ve got to see this kid play, he’s f–king unbelievable!” warned one PGA Tour of Australasia player after seeing first-hand how Guan goes about things on the course.
“He’s a jet. I haven’t seen anything like him. The way he thinks his way around a course isn’t something he should be able to do at his age,” adds an Australian tournament official.
There has been one objection, however. When news of our cover filtered across social media this week, a senior member of Golf Australia’s high performance staff expressed concern that it was too early to be putting a youngster like Jeff on the cover of a national golf magazine, fearing the pressure and publicity could distract him from the task at hand. “By doing this, you can ruin a career before it even starts,” they said. Guan answered that the very next day by winning the NSW Combined High School’s Championship by NINE shots, shooting a final-round of 67 that included a triple-bogey.
The counter-argument to such concerns, of course, is if our best young players can’t handle the spotlight now, will they be cut out for the tour bubble in a few years time? Guan, after all, tends to do things in victories, so the media is inevitably going to come calling. Why not give him an early taste?
It also highlights the paradoxical nature of Australian golf. “Do more for the exposure of junior golf,” we’re constantly told. So we put one on the cover of our magazine and all of a sudden it’s: “Don’t over-promote our kids, it could ruin their careers.”
“I remember playing in an Australian Open many moons ago with a 16-year-old kid called Rory McIlroy,” recalls Australian Golf Digest TV instructor Jason King. “He was clearly better than anyone at that age and he knew it. There was expectation on him to perform because that’s all his country was talking about back home. The way he handled it was well beyond his years, just so impressive. And there’s a lesson in that. Sometimes, when you’re the best, you need to be told you’re the best so you can better understand how to handle the pressure that comes with it, and how to conduct yourself. From what I’ve heard and seen of Jeffrey Guan, he will use this newfound stardom as added fire to get to the top.”
One more thing – the last time we put a junior golfer on our cover? May 2005, a young Beaudesert boy by the name of Jason Day. That turned out all right.
But more on “Why Guan?” Well, if you haven’t seen him swing a club, a quick glance at his playing résumé tells you everything you need to know: Australian Junior champion, New South Wales Junior champion, NSW Men’s Stroke Play champion, Harvey Norman Week of Golf champion, South Coast Junior Masters champion, Australian Men’s Amateur runner-up and NSW Men’s Amateur runner-up. He also took out the recent Adidas Junior 6s events at Royal Sydney and Yarra Yarra.
Still with us?
Guan was the Bexley club champion as a 12-year-old. He then took that up a peg or two by becoming the club champion of the distinguished Australian Golf Club at 14, winning the 36-hole matchplay final against his senior counterpart, 8&7.
But wait, there’s more.
After 26 rounds (at the time of writing) this year at club, state and national levels, Guan was a combined 81-under par and a whopping 119 shots better than the scratch rating in those rounds – that’s how much better he was versus the score a scratch golfer was expected to shoot on each course. He’d carded seven-under three times, and an unofficial course-record nine-under at Links Shell Cove on the NSW South Coast.
Then, maybe the most impressive feat of all – the putt he had for a 59 at the Greg Norman-designed The Vintage in the NSW Hunter Valley, which he had no idea about until he tapped in for a 60 (“I would have given it a more aggressive stroke had I known!” he later tells us).
Oh, and did we mention he plays off a handicap of plus-6.5?
All this at 16 – SIXTEEN! – years of age.
They’re numbers that have convinced TaylorMade Golf to continue its support of the Endeavour Sports High School prodigy on his inevitable journey to the professional ranks. But if the company’s general manager in Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Bayliss, was trying to keep a lid on things, he failed miserably.
“He actually gives me goosebumps… just the thought of where he’s going to end up,” Bayliss admits. “I wouldn’t even want to do him the disservice of saying he’s the next Jason Day. He’s possibly bigger and better than that.”
With a scoring average of “around 68” at his home club, Guan has suddenly emerged as a genuine smoky for this year’s Australian Open, reportedly on track for a November return at, you guessed it, The Australian Golf Club. But if you want some juicy odds for the smooth-swinging teenager, you may want to hurry. “Get on him now because I have a feeling there are going to be some sizeable bets placed on him before round one,” jokes Bayliss.
If you’re still not convinced about this kid’s credentials, we present you Guan’s mentor since day one: Beverley Park Golf Club professional Paul Davis.
“I grew up playing alongside a lot of supremely talented guys – names like [15-time Japan Tour winner] Brendan Jones – and I’ve got to say, I’ve never seen anyone as talented as this kid. His ability is out of this world,” Davis says.
“But it’s not just his knack for shooting low scores. It’s his composure under pressure. The number of times he’s hit clutch shots to win tournaments, the way he doesn’t let anything affect him out on the course… he’s already tour-level in that regard. He works harder than everyone else and remains such a humble person.”
It’s a work ethic passed down from his mother and father, Chinese immigrants who today make ends meet in a kitchen and driving taxis. His dad, Ken, was once a very capable golfer himself, playing off single figures and placing a plastic golf club in his son’s hands for the first time when he was 3. What a masterstroke that may turn out to be. If Guan continues on this current trajectory, Dad will be ditching those tiresome taxi fares for private jet privileges in the not too distant future.
Until then, however, Guan is likely to continue playing multiple rounds a day with mates, like he did straight after winning the Yarra Yarra Adidas Junior 6s event in April. “You’d think the last thing you’d want to do after winning a tournament would be to go back out and play another 18 holes,” Bayliss says.
“Not Jeff.”
‘Committed’ doesn’t even begin to explain the lengths Guan goes to for a hit. When Mum and Dad can’t give him a lift, he often catches a bus home from school with his brother, then hops on a train from Rockdale to Mascot, before walking the remainder of the 90-minute journey to The Australian Golf Club. That’s an hour-and-a-half for, sometimes, no more than an hour of putting practice.
“I think Jeff’s underlying motivation now is all about giving back to his parents,” adds Davis. “He really appreciates the position their hard work and sacrifices have put him in. Personally, I’ve just always wanted to make sure ‘JG’ had every opportunity to excel, as so many good players either get bad advice or don’t surround themselves with good people that will have a positive influence in their lives. I totally believe Jeff has what it takes to succeed in golf, and I hope I’m there to watch how it unfolds.”
After interviewing Guan for our Q&A in the June issue if Australian Golf Digest, we were invited to tee it up with the phenom himself at The Australian Golf Club. It took just two swings for us to see what all the fuss was about. After pushing his opening tee shot in between the bunkers down the right-side of the first fairway (a rare miss for him, we’re told!), he assessed a tricky lie in the rough, pulled out his fairway wood from about 190 metres, rain falling, and gave it an almighty whack, chasing it up to the green to about eight feet from the pin for an eagle putt.
This writer just stood there for a moment, stunned. “He’s 16, eh?” I asked Davis, who tagged along for the walk. The wry grin on his face said it all.
Jeffrey Guan, folks. Remember the name. And buy the issue!