Wee wonder Emma tames St Andrews

Emma (pictured below), who has just turned 11, was a mere six inches away from winning the PGA and Golf Foundation run Wee-wonders under-10s Golf Championship, sponsored by Wilson, which is open to participants throughout the UK from the ages of 9-12.

Unlike conventional golfing events, the Wee-wonders competition is decided by the person who advances the furthest around the golf course after completing 36 strokes, although the tournament poses a greater all-round examination than being merely a long-hitting contest as players must hole out before moving to the next tee.

Emma was remarkably 160 yards down the 10th fairway on the par three/four Belgrove course before exhausting her allocation, with the third place finisher way back on the eighth hole. The nine competitors, winners of the various regional qualifying events all over Britain, were treated to two practice rounds the day before the event which had a genuine professional feel to it with such features as individual player announcements on the first tee.

Emma, who has already laid her hands on a batch of trophies despite this being just her second year as a member of a golf club, was the pick of the entrants in the regional semi-final at Beauport Park Estate Golf Course in Hastings where she reached the ninth fairway back in May and final at Burgess Hill Golf Club where she wound up in the ninth hole in late June.

Proud mother Janet, herself a member at Highwoods, said: "Everybody says she's a natural and she just loves the game. She's got a handicap of 36 but she's playing more like 26 or 28 at the moment and the girl she lost to at St Andrew's plays off 20."

Emma, who lives in Hailsham, has earned a scholarship to the much-vaunted St Bede's School in Eastbourne, not only because of her golfing heroics, but via her swimming and musical talents as well.