FERN Grimshaw is hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow Wessex Golf Centre professionals Jon Bevan and Michael Watson by qualifying for a major international tournament.

The 23-year-old from Weymouth is currently a third of the way through a Foundation Degree in golf and has been taking part in her first professional tournaments since passing her Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) playing ability test last summer.

And she has already achieved more on the playing side than she was hoping to this year after picking up the winner’s cheque at a ladies’ Pro-Am event at Bigbury Golf Club, Devon.

“I didn’t really expect to win anything in my first year to be honest,” she said. “Jon said to me it was going to be strange playing as a professional and it would take a long time to get used to it.

“I wasn’t planning on picking up any cheques so I have already met what I wanted to do this year which gives you a little bit of confidence going into every event you play.”

Bevan was Grimshaw’s coach at Weymouth Golf Club but when he transferred to Wessex Golf Centre, so did his protégé.

“Weymouth is brilliant but it made more sense to come and work with my coach so he could keep an eye on me,” said Grimshaw.

However, she still keeps in touch with Weymouth and has been grateful for their support ever since she took up the sport as a 13-year-old and the ex-Budmouth Technology College pupil is hopeful of carving out a successful career.

She is currently the assistant pro to Bevan and Watson at Wessex is aiming to carve out a successful career in the sport when she completes her Foundation Degree in two years.

To get to where she is today, Grimshaw also spent four years in Florida completing a physical education degree as well as improving her golf on the university team and now helps coach the juniors and ladies at Wessex Golf Centre.

But all that work means there is not as much time to practice as the playing professionals, giving her a disadvantage against those competitors in the professional tournaments she is competing in.

She said: “The playing professionals work at it so hard – 9am till 5pm is their work day so they will be practising all day. But I have to do my course, be in the shop at certain times as well as keeping up my standard of golf.

“I normally hit a couple of buckets of balls up the range for an hour and a half and then practice my short game so I normally only get three hours of practice in. That isn’t enough to be aiming for as high a standard as you see on the TV.

“Hopefully when I get my course out of the way I will have more time to practice.”

However, that did not stop her scoring a victory in the ladies’ Pro-Am at Bigbury and she has targeted more success in the future.

She said: “At the moment I’m just concentrating on my three-year course, getting through that and passing it to get my official PGA status.

“After that I’d like to do some teaching and also try to qualify for the Ladies’ Open and do some mini tournaments to start playing a bit more.

“I wanted to get this course out of the way so I have something to fall back on with the coaching if the playing side doesn’t work out.

“In five or six years’ time I’d like to be thinking about playing on a tour and would also have hopefully got into the Open.

“It would be nice to look back and know that you have played in the biggest event in the world but a lot of practice has to go into that and I have to make sure I’m playing well enough.

“Whether it happens or not is down to me I suppose – I have to make sure I practice hard enough but at the moment I’m just concentrating on finishing this course because it’s not the easiest.

“If I can get through that it would leave me sorted for life.”

Grimshaw also offered her thanks to Lee Wills and everyone at the Wessex Golf Centre, Weymouth Golf Club and the Sir Samuel Mico Trust for the funding and support they have given her.

Last week she took part in the Cirencester National PGA Assistants Pre-Qualifying event, finishing in the top 14 to make the main event in East Sussex at the end of July, before taking part in a competition at Taunton’s Oake Manor, where she missed the cut.