Enfield Golf Club's junior sensation has the driver to succeed

Ten-year-old Freddie is taking on the adults thanks to hours of practice in his dad’s garage

Freddie Buck on the golf course — Freddie Buck with one of the trophies he won last year

A ten-year-old golf prodigy is being touted as a potential future professional after a series of stunning successes.

Freddie Buck, who lives near Chase Farm Hospital and is a member of the junior section at Enfield Golf Club, has one of the lowest handicaps for his age group in the UK and has even begun entering men’s competitions – and making cuts.

Proud dad Dan is now spending thousands taking Freddie to competitions all over the country, as well as abroad. “He had his first lesson when he was four and he hit the ball the very first time he swung,” Dan explains. “From then on he was obsessed – he loved playing crazy golf at Trent Park.”

Hitting balls around jungle animals and through water fountains was never likely to be enough for Freddie, however, so he joined Enfield Golf Club four years ago.

“As soon as he joined, his golf has just gone through the roof,” says Dan. “He is now playing high-level competitions and if he can continue to play and get a positive handicap by the time he turns 14, it is possible [he could turn pro].”

Also now a member of Hadley Wood Golf Club, Freddie enters junior competitions on an almost weekly basis. Recent successes include winning the US Kids British Masters and Irish Open and finishing as runner-up at the World Junior Championships in Portugal in February. Although Freddie has also qualified for the US Kids Golf World Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina, Dan has never been able to take him there.

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Freddie practices four hours every day on average, even hitting balls in the garage before going to school. But Dan says his son’s success has also been helped by being part of Enfield Golf Club, where there is a thriving juniors section.

“We need to make sure he does it in the right way but he is improving quicker than we thought and now we have to think how best we can help him with the resources we have got.

“I come from a poor family and we could never have done this, so the fact we can do it with Freddie, we want to give him every opportunity.”

Helping to guide him is Phil Tiddy, the juniors manager at Enfield Golf Club. Phil says: “In the 13 or 14 years I have been doing this, Freddie is by far the best junior we have had.

“Freddie even played in our men’s club championships and made the cut!”

Dan also praises Freddie’s coach Shaun Collins and says that he has opportunities at Enfield “that he wouldn’t get at a lot of other golf clubs”, adding: “I don’t know any other golf club that gives up tee times for juniors at peak time on a Saturday.”

Anthony Mocklow, the new general manager at Enfield Golf Club, says he is “excited by Freddie’s discipline and drive” and that the ten-year-old is an example of why he considers it so important to develop a strong juniors section at the club.

Phil adds: “Over the years the strength of the juniors has built and now it is a place people come to as they know it is somewhere the kids can get on. The club recognises it has a social responsibility to bring young players through.”

For more information about the juniors section at Enfield Golf Club:
Visit enfieldgolfclub.co.uk/junior-section

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