Young golfer set for big noise

By Matt Slater
Golf editor

When I go to the driving range all that any of the staff ever say to me is "sorry, mate, you can't use this bay, I've got a lesson at six" or "do you want another bucket?"

One of the coaches said I had a natural golf swing and should start playing - so I did

What nobody has ever said is "bloody hell, you're a complete natural - can I coach you?"

But that is what a member of Cookridge Hall Golf Club's staff said to an 11-year-old Kiran Matharu the day she accompanied her dad to the range.

He was right, though. Seven years and a spectacular amateur career later, Matharu is about to start her first full season of professional golf.

"I didn't really know what golf was before then," said Matharu with matter-of-fact honesty.

"I just went with my dad one day, because he had started playing again, and I hit a few balls.

"One of the coaches said I had a natural golf swing and should start playing. So I did."

Within months of that first visit to the range in 2000, the Leeds lass had a handicap of 38. Before the year was out she was captaining Yorkshire's U16s.

By the end of 2002, Matharu's handicap was down to six and she was playing for England U16s.

Then things started to really take off. Matharu stormed through 2003, claiming titles across the land, to win the English U18 order of merit.

Matharu is blessed with a smooth, rhythmical swing

Domestic mastery established, international competition beckoned in 2004, usually against girls much older than her.

It was during this season that Matharu attained "scratch" status. She finished the year two shots better at plus two.

"When I got to one I thought it would be really hard to improve but the following year I went to plus two really quickly," Matharu said.

"I seemed to improve almost every time I played."

By this time Matharu, still only 15, was practising almost every waking hour that she wasn't at school.

"At first my friends thought it was a bit weird, you know, because golf is supposed to be a boring game," she said.

"But since then they've got used to me playing. And I left school after my GCSEs anyway, so I could concentrate on golf full-time."

The following year brought more trophies and team recognition, all with the common theme of her being "the youngest".

Matharu, who was by now the lowest handicapped golfer in Great Britain and Ireland at +3.4, finished off 2005 with two runner-up finishes in world championship events in Florida. She also defended her Faldo Series title.

Then last year she became the youngest ever winner of the English Ladies' Amateur Championship and was the youngest player at the Curtis Cup.

Faldo, another of Matharu's "mates", is available for advice

"I knew I was going to turn pro when I was 17," said Matharu, who by this time was playing off plus four.

"Once I had become English champion and played in the Curtis Cup, there wasn't much more to do in the amateurs. So I turned pro.

"The day before I was an amateur and then suddenly I was in my first tournament as a pro. It was good and I played quite well. It was the best finish I've had so far.

"The other players were friendly. I knew some of them from the amateurs. But obviously I was the youngest one there."

That first professional start, the Wales Ladies Championship of Europe last August, finished with Matharu eagling the last to record four rounds of par or better and a share of 15th.

Even better, she got to meet one of her heroes.

"My caddie is best mates with Laura Davies so we would have dinner with her," said Matharu, who like Davies is immaculate from tee to green with surprising length off the tee.

"We ended up sitting and talking with each other and she called me 'mate' a few times. That was good.

"And then I met Annika Sorenstam in Dubai. She was really nice."

Matharu is most often compared to American star Michelle Wie

By "in Dubai", of course, Matharu meant at the Dubai Ladies Masters last October. She impressed there too, firing a 68 to share third place after round one before falling back to finish 19th.

Sorenstam may well have been nice but you can be sure that the Swede marked Matharu's card as a threat to her world number one status.

Which brings us up to date, because soon after Dubai Matharu earned her 2007 Ladies European Tour card with a third-place finish at the qualifying school.

Matharu, whose family came to England from the Punjab 50 years ago, had wanted an LPGA card but the American circuit refused to waive its normal age limit of 18 as she had not yet proved herself as a professional.

America's loss, Europe's gain: although Matharu has made it clear she intends to join the US tour next season.

"I like America, I've been about nine times," she confirmed.

I like being compared to Wie but I wouldn't play in men's tournaments Kiran Matharu

In the meantime, the English starlet hopes to have won at least one tournament - "it doesn't matter which one or how much money" - and force her way into Europe's Solheim Cup team to play the US in September.

That would probably bring Matharu face to face with America's leading candidates for post-Sorenstam supremacy, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel and the player she is already being likened to, Michelle Wie.

606 DEBATE: Who is the brighter prospect - Matharu or Wie?

Eight months younger than Matharu but 477 places higher than her in the world rankings - and many millions of dollars richer - the Hawaiian-born Wie has had a few years' start on her English rival in the headlines stakes.

But Miss Wie's headlines have been less flattering of late, largely because of her misadventures on the men's tour. Not a route Matharu, whose next tournament will see her take star billing at the Women's Indian Open in March, intends to go down.

"(Wie) has achieved a lot and it's good to be compared her," said Matharu.

"But she plays in men's tournaments and things like that. I don't want to do that, I like being compared to her but I wouldn't play in men's tournaments. Everyone does their own thing."

For the foreseeable future Matharu's "own thing" is winning golf tournaments on the Ladies European Tour.

Do that and small things like rankings, dollars (or euros, in Matharu's case) and Solheim Cup appearances will look after themselves.