Golf: Cruel blow stuns golf's rising star

By PATRICK GOWER

One of New Zealand's most promising young golfers has blown a chance to play top golf in the United States because he let his father caddy for him.

Jae An, the 14-year-old Rotorua boy who shot to fame when he played in the New Zealand Open against Tiger Woods, won a US junior amateur qualifying tournament by four shots when he came in one under par at the weekend.

Then, to the young South Korean's disbelief, he lost when organisers enforced their rule that parents, guardians, brothers or sisters could not caddy.

"I asked on the first tee if it was all right for my father to caddy and the man said yes," Jae said from the US yesterday.

He had showered after the last round and returned to the Willow Oaks Golf Club in Richmond, Virginia, for the presentation. He had carded a 36-hole total of 143, one under par, after rounds of 74 and 69.

Then he found he had been disqualified.

Officials told him he should have been penalised two shots a round because his father was caddying, but as he had signed the cards, without the penalty, he had to be disqualified.

A distraught Jae spoke to his golf master at Rotorua Boys High School, Ian Woon, in "panic mode" yesterday, saying: "Is there anything we can do to change this?"

The Willow Oaks event was the only one of 66 qualifying events for the US Amateur Championships in July that Jae was allowed entry to, leaving him no other way to get in.

Mr Woon said making it into the championship was Jae's main goal, and the family would return to Rotorua unless the disqualification was overturned.

He had spoken with Jae's sponsor, golf clothing manufacturer Tailormade, and hoped they could influence the decision, or even get him a wildcard entry in one of the other tournaments.

His father, C.S. An, caddied for him at the New Zealand Open and was allowed to carry the bags in a senior tournament in the US last week.

However, Mr Woon said the Ans' English was "simply just not up there" and might have contributed to the misunderstanding.

In a similar incident at the New Zealand under-23 championships two years ago, they arrived but failed to check in.

"Jae was waiting out on the course, he didn't get called, then wanted to know what the story was," said Mr Woon.

Jae made international headlines this year when he became the youngest golfer believed to have played, and survived, the cut in a national professional event - allowing him to play in the same field as Tiger Woods.

Mr Woon said the family had spent a lot of money going to the US, and he hoped they would stay and try to qualify for the American public links and amateur tournaments to further Jae's goal of becoming a professional.

He called the disappointing experience "a big and expensive learning curve".