Australian golf is experiencing moments of deep concern for the health of one of its youngest talents. This is Jeff Guan, a 20-year-old golfer who was once a top 50 world amateur and who made his debut last week at the PGA Tour with an invitation to the Procore Championship. Guan has been urgently operated on in a Canberra hospital after being the victim of an unfortunate incident.
This happened on Friday during the NSW Open Regional Qualifier tournament, part of a series of events that take place within the Australian calendar and are played over 36 holes and in a Pro Am format. What happened is that Guan was hit by a ball from one of the participating amateurs, with the bad luck that it hit him in the eye. According to medical sources consulted by Golf Digest Australia, Guan suffered multiple fractures in the eye socket and was at serious risk of permanent vision damage. He is now waiting to be transferred to a specialist hospital in Sydney for further treatment.
Paul Davis, Guan’s coach and mentor for many years, was hoping for positive news. “There is fear that he may lose some vision, but we will not know the full extent until he goes to Sydney for a more thorough evaluation. It’s really horrible… this has been the first Pro-Am that Jeff has participated in. It’s simply the worst possible news after such an amazing week in California.”
The NSW Open Golf Regional Qualifying Series belongs to a set of six 36-hole tournaments held throughout the state, offers a prize pool of $50,000 and serves as a qualifier for the NSW Championship in 2024.
Guan is considered one of the best young golfers in Australia. This very year he already finished in the top ten in the Challenge Tour tournament held in Le Vaudreuil, where the Spanish Joel Moscatel precisely won. In his last three appearances he had missed the cut, once in the Challenge of Austria, another in the International Series of England and finally in the aforementioned Procore Championship.
