PLAYING a golf course with no grass and teeing off a sythentic turf mat is hardly the introduction to the game that leads to a successful career but Teessider Neil Hunter-Smith's determination to carve out a life in the sport is already reaping rewards.

Hunter-Smith has turned his golfing upbringing on Saudi Arabian salt flats into what he considers a dream job as a Golf Fitness Instructor within the Mission Hills Golf Academies in China.

The 25-year-old, from Yarm, has only been in China since June but he already believes he is at the start of something special at Mission Hills.

Not bad for someone who started playing golf at the age of three at the local pitch and putt course and whose family moved to Saudi Arabia four years later.

Having moved home to Yarm after eight years in Saudi, and playing in the more conventional surrounds of Eaglescliffe Golf Club, Hunter-Smith was back on the road and pursuing his ambition as soon as he finished his A-Levels.

He said: “I moved to San Diego to attend the Golf Academy of America when I was 19, and graduated with an Associates of Applied Business degree, majoring in Golf Complex and Business Management.”

Southern California was good to the young Englishman in other ways for aside from attempting to qualify for the US Open, US Amateur and the PGA Tour Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, it was in San Diego where he got into golf fitness, completing the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Level 1 certification. He has since added more.

Hunter-Smith said: “Since arriving at Mission Hills in the middle of June I have worked with and trained several aspiring juniors with one highlight coming when one student dropped her scores by eight to ten shots on average. She went on to win a tournament locally before heading home."

AFTER a ten year gap, Beamish Ladies’ Bronze Team triumphed in the established Thomlinson Cup.

The Thomlinson Cup, first presented in 1936 by Colonel Sir W Thomlinson, was fiercely competed for tby the Ladies sections of every golf club in Durham County.

Beamish emerged victorious with a team consisting of Tracie Smith, Elaine Reilly and Carol Heslop, culminating in victory over Blackwell Grange at South Moor.

It is the third time Beamish has won competition, dating back with a first victory back in 1955.

A TEESSIDE-based golf course has introduced one of the UK’s newest sports, footgolf, to the North-East, with the help of funding from HSBC.

Stokesley Golf Range has developed a nine-hole footgolf course to complement the traditional golf course, driving range and crazy golf it already operates.