Growing Pains

Lewine Mair reports on golf's current crop of young female talents and the issues they face as their careers develop

Nilsson’s reaction to all of this is that the Thompsons, Hulls and Yangs of this world need to take care. Though she can see that an influx of young things would make good publicity for the professional tours, she has seen for herself what can go wrong.

Her clients include any number of players who, having hit the headlines in their teens, fail to get any better in their 20s.

“If they are going to be ‘really great’,” she maintains “they need to have space, rest and time to develop calmly. There is so much more to the puzzle than merely playing golf. If a youngster is looking for any kind of sustained career she needs balance in her life.”

Nilsson went on to say that while it made sense for a teenager to be accompanied by protective parents on tour, there was also a downside insofar as the child’s development could be stifled. “To be mentally healthy,” she explained, “a girl needs to have a wider circle of friends beyond family and working companions.”

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