David West, the 42-year old from Hitchin attempting to go from a novice to scratch golfer within a year recently teed it up with Ladies European Tour star Tara Dayer-Smith at Mount Pleasant Golf Club, Lower Stondon.
Last August, West was made redundant and decided to embark on an ambitious quest to go from a complete novice golfer to a scratch player in just 12 months.
Wilson Staff backed West, who has now moved from the brand’s X31 irons he purchased to the new Di11 irons.
Further assistance has come from fellow Hitchin resident Dayer-Smith, who earned her Ladies European Tour card last year after almost ten years out of the game.
“To be given the chance to play with Tara and take on some of her technical and mental advice has inspired me,” said West.
“My dream is to reach scratch standard by September and Tara’s is to win the Women’s British Open and play for Europe in the Solheim Cup – it will be interesting to see if we can both fulfill our ambitions!”
Dayer-Smith, 30, made her first ever appearance on the Ladies European Tour in May after being given enough money by a friend’s company to take part in the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.
“David has amazing passion for learning the game,” she said. “If he keeps working hard and receiving such great support, I think making it to scratch this summer is a real possibility.”
West plans to work his way through the Wilson Staff irons range, up to the FG Tour irons currently used by three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington.
You can follow West’s progress at novice2scratch.com, while Dayer-Smith’s website launched on 1 February at taraworld.co.uk