How did you become involved in golf?
My brother started playing and I tagged along, and then the coach said I would probably be better than him – so that made me stick at it and just see where it went. A lot of people who try golf find it’s quite an addictive game – you have the ounces of brilliance and then it’s sometimes pretty poor. So you get hooked into it because you see you can hit the good shots.
So are you better than your brother now?
Yeah, he packed it in!
Are there a lot of opportunities and openings for children?
There is a fair amount, at your local golf club. At Pike Hills club I was part of the junior set-up there for quite a few years. Different places are better at it than others, but people are really starting to try to focus on getting younger people in the game, young women especially.
So there’s not a lot of women playing the sport?
There are quite a lot of us when we are all joined together, but we are so spread out over the country. I’ve only got a few girls I play with locally in Yorkshire, so we end up playing with the guys really.
Do you find a lot of opportunities to play golf at York? Where do you play?
Fulford. It’s got a better ladies section – the ladies’ scratch team won the second county division this year, so we are now in the top division against some of the better teams around Yorkshire, which should be good.
What has been the best moment of your career so far?
I got to the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship finals in Abu Dhabi. From the Yorkshire girls championship, I won the first round best gross, and came in the top 10 on the leader board over the season to go through to the finals.
What was Abu Dhabi like?
Amazing. It opened my eyes to the quality of courses the professionals play on, which was just awesome and I just loved it, every minute of it. I didn’t do great when I was out there, but putting it into perspective I was the top 10 out of hundreds – so when you put it like that it’s not that bad!
Golf is a hugely mental game, how do you deal with the pressure?
I started seeing a sports psychologist who is also a golfer. You can be out on the course for over four hours sometimes, you can be out on your own or with your playing partners who aren’t very chatty. It’s tiring and to be able to concentrate for that long is pretty much impossible so it’s all about switching on and off between shots.
Any future ambitions?
Playing professionally is my ultimate aim. I did look at America and the golf scholarships they offer but the academic side wasn’t very good. The degree is just something on the side really! Just – see what happens after uni, I want to take a few years out and just concentrate on my golf.
Congratulations on being awarded the TASS (Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme) for a second time!
I was really worried over summer as last year there was only ten girl golfers in the country with them and this year it’s been cut to five.