Roisin Scanlon, a junior member at the Bedfordshire Golf Club, is to make history this week as the 12-year old competes in the final qualifier of the Rose Series event at The Shire Golf Club in St Albans.
The special series of events, ran by former US Open and Olympic champion Justin Rose, are one-day competitions for the pros as the European Tour continues to be on pause.
Scanlon will be competing alongside seasoned professionals such as Charley Hull, Georgia Hall and Dame Laura Davies in the event which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports from this Thursday.
Roisin already has an impressive list of achievements, becoming the youngest qualifier for the Justin Rose Telegraph Championship finals in Portugal, where she finished an impressive 9th.
As well as this, she is the Under 11’s European Champion, finished in the top 10 at the English Girls Open Championships and also has a whole host of local and regional titles to her name.
Her highlight however came with victory in the Lord Lieutenant’s Trophy at the Bedfordshire Golf Club, making club history as she became the first ever female winner of the mixed competition.
Roisin’s journey began at the age of 4 and she achieved her first handicap of 24 at the age of 8. Now playing off a mere 3.6, her ambition to become a scratch golfer is the next aim.
Despite lockdown stopping her progress, along with everyone else’s, Roisin managed to take the positives from the situation and train as much as she could, however she could.
Her Dad, Anthony, has of course been with her every step of the way:
“The lock down was difficult, but Roisin tried to use the time wisely and developed a daily routine to work on different short game skills such as chipping low, high shots and distance control.”
“She created lots of games, targets and challenges in order to make it fun. Sometimes she created videos on the different games she created of which she shared with her golf friends around the UK.”
With six qualifiers already taking place, the seventh and final Rose Series qualifier at The Shire gives the ladies one final hope of reaching the Grand Final showpiece at Wentworth on 5th August.
However the event goes for the young prodigy, Roisin sure has a bright future ahead of her as she works towards the Ladies European Tour and beyond.
