The Masters 2013: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy impressed by 14-year-old Guan Tianling

Tianland Guan practices alongside Tiger Woods at Augusta (GETTY IMAGES)

At 14, Tiger Woods was running cross-country and trying to stay on top of his homework. Adam Scott was psyched to finish second against a field of 17-year-olds. Rory McIlroy had thoughts of playing in the Masters, but it was the European Young Masters.

The world's best players are marveling at Guan Tianling, the 14-year-old from China who will be the youngest to ever play in the Masters this week, and the youngest player at any major in 148 years.

"I mean, this kid can't play high school golf. He's not in high school yet," Woods said yesterday.

Guan's presence isn't an expansion of Augusta National's Junior Pass program, which allows kids 8 to 16 to tag along to the Masters for free with an adult. He earned his spot here by winning the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship last fall, a tournament he led wire to wire.

He also shot a 70 in the second round of the Australian Open last December, and he impressed Woods with his poise when they played a practice round on Monday.

"He's so consistent," Woods said. "He was hitting a lot of hybrids into the holes yesterday, hitting them spot-on, right on the numbers. He knew what he was doing, he knew the spots he had to land the ball and to be able to pull it off. Good scouting, good prep, but also even better execution.

"For a 14-year-old to be able to come out here and handle himself the way he's done is just unbelievable."

Augusta is notoriously rough on first-timers; no rookie has won since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979, and the best finish for an amateur is runner-up. So just imagine arriving here as a teenager, rubbing shoulders with players you've looked up to for years at one of the most famous courses in all of golf.

"I don't know how I would have been able to handle the enormity of the situation as a 14-year-old mentally," Scott said. "Obviously he can play very, very good golf at 14 — better than most. But I just don't know how you handle the pressure and the nerves at that age. I can't think back to how I would have done that."

At that age, Scott was simply thrilled with his second-place finish at the Queensland Juniors.

"That ... was a big deal, because I was playing against 17-year-olds," Scott said. "So that was a big step for me."

McIlroy and Woods were golf prodigies. But even they couldn't fathom playing Augusta National at Guan's age.

"I was having breakfast with my dad and coach this morning and I was just like, '14 years old and playing in the Masters,"' McIlroy said. "I think I played my first Masters when I was 19."

But, having spent some time with Guan, Woods said he thinks the teen-ager has the right approach.

"He's just taking it all in," Woods said. "He's going to learn and become so much better because of this experience, and he's certainly going to grow as a player and as a person."

Good thing, because has a lot of golf left.

"You're playing in the Masters at 14. He could potentially play, I don't know, 60 Masters," McIlroy said. "What's this, the 77th? So he could actually double it nearly."

Reuters