Chinese prodigy sign of things to come - Woods

The march of technology and the global growth of golf will mean that 14-year-olds, like China prodigy Andy Zhang, may become commonplace in the next few years, according to Tiger Woods. 

The Beijing-born, but Florida-based Zhang (pictured) has made history at this year's US Open at San Francisco's Olympic Club even before the tournament gets underway. 

Having narrowly failed to qualify for the year's second major, Zhang suddenly found himself propelled into the tournament due to last-minute entry adjustments and injury withdrawals. 

At 14 years and six months when he tees of in Thursday's opening round, Zhang will be what US Golf Association officials believe is the youngest player in US Open history and certainly the youngest since World War II. 

Tadd Fujikawa, who was 15 at the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot, is the previous youngest player of the modern era. 

Asked for his reaction to such a young player competing in the US Open, Tiger Woods said that technological advances were playing a key role. 

"These kids are now bringing out iPads to the range and watching their swing and breaking it down on the V1 (video analysis software). That's totally different," he said. 

"Like (Ben) Hogan said, if he had a video camera the changes would happen so much faster. These kids are now being introduced when they first start. 

"I saw a few of these kids over in Korea that they've only been playing the game for a year. 

"And six months of it was all indoors hitting golf balls. All they did was put the club in the correct position to hit balls, hit balls, hit balls, and that's it. They come out and they have perfect golf swings. 

"That's the new generation. The swings are all going to look very similar, and all these kids are going to have power." 

Zhang has lived in the US since he was 10, having taken up golf at six, and he attends the IMG Golf Academy in Florida 

On hearing of his lucky break in getting into the tournament, Zhang wasted no time in coming to grips with the tough layout at The Olympic Club. 

He played his first practice round on Tuesday morning with Bubba Watson, and the Masters champion said he had been impressed by the youngster's game. 

"It was fun talking to him. It was fun getting to know him. He was nervous, didn't talk much. Maybe I just talk too much. But it was cool," Watson said.