Too young to play?

[Crawley]

With the recent entry into golfs Masters of the Chinese wonderkid aged just 14, closely followed by a 12 year old playing in this weeks European Tour event, are sports in danger of becoming a bit of a circus, while affecting these childrens natural growing up period, or is it a case of good enough, old enough?

Personally, to play on a pro tour, I believe there should be a limit in all sports. Tennis has had a few in the past too, hasn't it?

 

[Richie]

Sport is the ultimate meritocracy. If you are good enough, you're old enough.

This will only be an issue in solo sports like golf and tennis. Any sport with physical interaction between players like football, they would be too young to handle it at the top level. In sports like Rugby, often 18 year olds can't handle top level physicality.

I don't see why they shouldn't play at the top level. They will be playing the sport regardless of whether they are attending these tournaments, so I don't buy any argument about protecting the kid physically.

My only issue would be if these young kids start getting byes in to tournaments as a stunt, like the female golfer Li Na did. She often got wild card entries to tournaments, taking away a place from more deserving players. As long as they qualify on merit, I have no problem.

 

[Skinhead in a Suit]

If there's grass on the wicket....:-"

Oh, wait, that's not what we're talking about!

 

[ArcspacE]

Many consider it a game, not a sport - perhaps the answer lies somewhere there