SAN DIEGO BOUND: Jean-Paul Ralph Picture: Gemma Allwood
A TALENTED 10-year-old Wirral golfer who only took up the sport 18 months ago is jetting off to San Diego, USA, in July to take part in the under-10 age group at the World Junior Golf Championships.
And Jean-Paul Ralph, a student at Birkenhead School, will be following in the footsteps of some of golf's most famous names, including the legendary Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, who are all previous winners of this age group.
Jean-Paul's success since being introduced to the sport 18 months ago by his father, Patrick, has been nothing short of stunning. He has had numerous victories on the British Junior Tour and has also qualified to compete in this month's US Kids European Championships at Gullane, Edinburgh.
He will represent the British Junior Golf Tour when he flies to San Diego in July, when he will compete agains the best 9-10-year-old players in the world.
Jean-Paul is about 4ft tall and weighs about four stone soaking wet' - he is known affectionately as Tiny' Woods or Ernie Elf'!
He and his father - they live in Noctorum - both belong to Vicars Cross Golf Club, Chester, and Jean-Paul recently also became a member of Wirral Ladies Golf Club.
advertisement
His golfing potential was spotted when Jean-Paul had lessons off Tony Davies, the PGA professional at Moreton Hills Golf Centre.
Said Tony: "He's a very talented lad with lots of ability. His swing was a little unorthodox at first, but he has worked hard and developed a more orthodox approach.
"Jean-Paul is well ahead of his years and if he keeps working to improve his game he can go all the way."
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
