California Dreamin'

Bel Wardle has enjoyed considerable success in the junior ranks. Now she’s preparing to head to America in a bid to boost her professional dream

- Michael Weston

It's a cold winter’s day when we speak, and rather like the famous song, Bel Wardle is California Dreamin’. This is to say the teenager is longing for the warmth of Los Angeles, the only difference being it’s not a cold New York she’s looking to escape, but Alderley Edge, Cheshire, where she’s made quite a name for herself at Prestbury Golf Club during her seven years playing the game.

That dream is about to become a reality, too, with a place at the University of California, Los Angeles, already secured for September. It comes as a result of some fine performances representing both England Girls and England Women, and she heads to the Golden State with some lofty ambitions. “I want to play on the LPGA Tour, 100 per cent,” she says, emphatically, before adding with a grin: “Then World No.1 and a Major win. You may as well set the bar high.”

Wardle could easily have followed a different path, although sport was always on the agenda. “I wanted to play tennis professionally, then I found golf and thought, ‘Maybe I’ll give this a go’. I found it really fun. It was the fact that I could play on my own. With tennis you need someone to hit it back and dad wasn’t always willing to do that.”

What dad, Paul, did do, however, was take her to Prestbury on the outskirts of Macclesfield for a junior coaching session run by PGA teaching professional, Mark Pilling. That first taste of golf would prove to be a pivotal moment for Wardle and her father, who would soon be adopting the role of taxi driver cum mentor. Along with a group of eight or so other girls, Wardle was off and running.

A competitive mindset