No one in my family played golf. My dad, Simon played cricket and he has never been able to hit a golf ball. My grandad gave me my first set of clubs when I was 5 years old, and a year later I played my first tournament. The age group was 10 and under and I finished second. After that I was hooked, I played in tournaments every month. It didn’t take long for me to know that I wanted to pursue golf.
We are just a normal middle class family. My mum, Kirsty trained as a veterinary nurse before starting her own business. Dad is educated in sports science and over the years has tried to use his somewhat limited knowledge of golf to help me. Both my parents and sister have been very supportive to my golf, they have all made huge sacrifices to help me on my journey by taking me all over Europe to play.
My first proper set of clubs was a full set of Ping Prodigy G when I was 8 years old. I practiced every day in all weather. Come rain or snow I was out there hitting into my golf net after school. Many times the ball flew into next doors garden and I had to go round to ask for it back. I learnt very quickly to hit it straight to save the embarrassment of another trip next door.
For guidance, I was coached in my early years by a number of different coaches. These included Graham Moore, Graham Farr, Alistair Davies and Jamie Carney. I moved house in 2018 and found a new coach, Richard Edwards who has been my coach ever since. I love his coaching style as he constantly questions me about lots of different scenarios which has really helped my learning so far. I have always been small for my age and in 2022 I started working with Zach Gould to help improve my strength. Dad helps me with the psychology and is for ever buying me new books to help increase my knowledge. The latest book he got me is called “The Elements of Scoring” by Raymond Floyd to assist with my course management.
I’ve just started raising awareness of my golf on social media and the internet in the hope to raise funding for my golf. Mum and dad have funded much of my golf coaching and playing in tournaments. Since 2022 I have received some assistance from various businesses, mainly from contacts that my family know. My goal is to keep playing for as long as possible and hopefully make it to the top. Of course this is every young players dream and I’m fully dedicated to the hard work required to get there. I will continue to raise awareness in the hope I can secure funding or sponsorship to help me get a little bit closer to achieving my dream.
It takes dedication and hard work and can be lonely at times. I have had to make huge sacrifices to my training. I have a great group of friends who I play on the PS5 with however I don’t always get to see them in school holidays or after school. At times this can be hard however I am dedicated to my training program and doing the best I can. Recently I started a part time job working in the kitchen at the local farm shop, dad felt I needed to appreciate how hard the real world is and I have to say it has taught me a lot about the value of money and working in a team. I’m using some of the money I earn to help pay for my golf equipment.
New challenges are set to test me. 2024 is an exciting year for me as I start to focus on prestigious world amateur competitions. I talked to my parents and performance team and we believed the best way to learn was to put myself into difficult and uncomfortable situations by playing against top amateurs. I can’t hit it as far as them yet and still very small for my age however I’m absolutely loving the challenge of competing at this level. Already I’ve learned many things about myself that I would not have found out had I stayed playing in local and regional competitions. Each day is a new challenge and I’m embracing the journey and learning. The guys out there have more awareness, better strategy, smarter shot selection and putt well. I am going to keep committing to the cause in the hope I can catch them up one day and hopefully over take them.
I don’t always play well, I’m learning that is part of golf. I am a bit of a perfectionist, guess this is a good thing as I don’t like to stop until I have mastered something. However I have had to learn that golf is not a game of perfection. 95 per cent of the time you are going to loose. Having that small percentage when it goes the other way is unbelievable and a feeling I absolutely love. I’m learning to stay focused on my own game and my own processes and not look at leaderboards. Every day is teaching me something new and the more I play high level competitive golf the more learning I am doing. Golf has taught me to always expect the unexpected. When it goes the opposite way you would like you have to stay in control of your emotions. This is something I am still working on and enjoying the challenge this brings (even if mum and dad would probably like a more calmer ride at times).
Away from golf I love Fortnite and Man City. You will often hear me shouting at my PS5 when my friends have ambushed me on Fortnite or I have lost a 1v1. I absolutely love the competition of being the last man standing, and can sometimes get so enthralled in winning I forget there is anyone else in the house (I’m often told to be quiet by mum and dad for becoming a bit to enthusiastic). My other love is Man City, dad often reminds me that Man City have never had it so good. I’ve been lucky enough to watch them play many times. I even got to go to the Champions League final in 2023 when we beat Inter Milan #citytillidie
