Juli Inkster, a mother of two daughters and a golfer who, at 50, is still competitive among the professionals, is quick to voice concern about golf’s new trend. In her view, girls of 15 should be having a bit of fun rather than working as professionals. “If one 15-year-old is allowed to join the tour, other parents will want their children following suit,” she warned.
There will be plenty among the golfing fraternity to say that Alexis Thompson is a one off but, ever since that day when Earl Woods first told how Tiger used to be plucked from his high chair to play his earliest golf shots, umpteen parents have been grooming their children for early stardom. Now, there are a growing number of young things waiting to pounce.
Thompson has been home-schooled to allow more time for her golf development and she is not alone. In England, 14-year-old Charlie Hull is going down the same route. Hull, 14, missed out on the British Girls’ Championship in Belfast in favour of playing among the male professionals in the Farmfoods Par 3 Championship at Nailcote Hall. She was later invited to play in Gary Player’s recent Invitational at Archerfield in East Lothian and Player, when he saw her, was sufficiently impressed to ask her to kindred events in Africa and Australia.
