GOLF: 12 Year Old To Compete In Women OPEN

Belinda Ji, 12, youngest golfer to compete Women’s Openin Australia

PLAYING in a professional golf tournament is hardly the normal pastime for a 12-year-old schoolgirl but that’s exactly what Belinda Ji will be doing today when she becomes the youngest player to compete in a NSW Women’s Open.

As her classmates navigate the challenges of their first days of secondary school, the Year Seven student at St George Girls High School will be negotiating the fairways and greens of the championship-quality Oatlands Golf Course against professionals, some almost four times her age.
“It’s my first big tournament so I’m excited but nervous as well,” Ji told The Daily Telegraph.
“It’s a different environment to anything I’ve been in before and I’m playing against the pros for the first time.”
Golf has a habit of producing child superstars.
Tiger Woods was just eight when he broke through for a sub-80 score before going on to win 14 majors. Hawaiian starlet Michelle Wie qualified for the US Amateur at the age of 10 and turned professional at 15.
Last month, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko became the youngest ever world No. 1, male or female, at just 17.
Ji will be following in Ko’s footsteps at the same Oatlands course where the Kiwi sensation won the event in 2012 as a 14-year-old.
Such lofty heights aren’t on Ji’s radar yet, but simply by playing she has broken Ko’s record as the youngest ever to play in the Women’s NSW Open.
Her development in the game has been meteoric. Just two years after her father David introduced her to golf at the now defunct Sydney Olympic Park Driving range she was playing off a handicap of nine.
“Belinda is very committed and loves playing golf,” her father David said.
“She has great concentration and just wants to get better and better.”
At nine she joined the Junior clinic at Concord Golf club where she won a scholarship at the age of 10. Junior development officer at the club Liz White recognised her talent immediately.
“It was pretty evident from the start she had skill,” White said.
“She just kept attending our clinics week in week out and it was obvious she had talent and enjoyed the game. Her handicap progression has been very impressive (Now three) but so as her mental approach to the game which is so important in the game of golf.
“For a nine year old and her concentration and ability to listen and learn was pretty impressive.”
Belinda plans to put that ability to listen and learn into practice tomorrow when she takes on stars like Rachael Hetherington and defending champion Joanna Klatten.