Talking Balls: Guan The Golf Genius & Footy Finishes (But B-Ball Begins)

What were you doing when you were 14? Talking Balls was drinking cider and super-strength lager, lighting a lot of fires and being too much of a teenager to partake in organized sport. Any time we spent on the golf course was engaged in minor criminal damage or coming-of-age experiences like some kind of rainier, seedier Dawson's Creek. Spare a thought for 14-year-old golf prodigy Guan Tianling. He's found enough time between homework and QQ to become the youngest player ever to qualify for the Masters. At 14 years, five months and 17 days, Guan will be the youngest player to compete in the tournament by more than two years. Look out for him at Augusta next April, look out for his natty golf slacks well before that.

Moving on. Let's synchronized dive straight into the news.

The CSL season is over. Guoan finished on a high by beating the champions, Guangzhou Evergrande, by a single goal at Gongti. That left the Greens in third place and in next season's AFC Champions' League. We'll be seeing Emile Heskey or Alessandro Del Piero in Beijing for that, with any luck, rather than yet another of the Griffiths brothers. We'll certainly see more of Darko Matic as the Serb announced he is staying at Beijing Guoan for another two years on his Sina Weibo. Here's the final CSL table:

In hoop headlines, there's still no news on where and when Beijing and Shanghai will tip off the new CBA season but Elton John is still taking the MasterCard Center on November 24. Stephon "Love is Love" Marbury's Weibo seems the likeliest place to find English-language news on that first game. It's either that or NiuBBall, but only Starbury has people commenting that "NB is NB."

For those that can make it out tonight, there's a full English Premier League schedule being televised in your local sports bar. For everyone who is beaten by the rain, check out which games are live on Sohu.com, then sit back and watch with a nice cup of beans.

The dates of snooker's China Open have been confirmed as March 25-31 next year. Tickets are not on sale yet but they will be soon on Get Tickets. There'll be no Ronnie "Give us a nosh" O' Sullivan, though. The Romford Rocket is hanging up his cue.

Lin Dan's shuttlecock sabbatical might cost him a pretty penny. The hiatus lines up with four blue riband badminton events and he'll be fined USD 5,000 for each that he misses.

Last but not least, White Collar Boxing's Beijing debut takes place next Saturday at the Renaissance's Shuangjing site. Don't put your nose out of joint by not being there to watch someone have their nose put out of joint.

Photo: Radio Canada