Welsh junior makes her mark in America

Welsh golf junior Anna Carling is making her mark across the water, last week taking home medallist honors at the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Golf Championships in the USA.

A member of The Vale Golf Junior Academy, and currently an Arkansas State sophomore, Anna won a sudden death playoff to give her college only their second ever individual champion at the league tournament. 

Carling turned in the second lowest round of her career Wednesday with a 70 and finished with a career-best 215 for all three rounds before winning the playoff on the first hole.

“It was obviously a really exciting position for me to be in going into the last day,” said Carling. “I just played two steady rounds, and it was exciting to be in contention with four good players ahead of me and a packed field behind me. I wanted to put in a nice round today and be in the mix at the end, but it was really a great tournament for the whole team.”

An equally talented hockey player, having played internationally, a few years ago Anna made the decision to dedicate herself to developing her golf – with exceptional results. After joining the Vale Golf Club in 2007, Anna became the first girl to captain the Vale Academy’s Junior team in 2008.

In 2009 she won a full scholarship to Arkansas State University in America where she immediately made her mark, being their leading player in her freshman year. This is her second career tournament title after winning the EKU Lady Colonel Classic in 2010.

David Llewellyn, former World Cup winner and Wales National Coach, is one of the Vale’s stellar team of five PGA coaching professionals who are dedicated to nurturing young talent. He has worked closely with Anna since she became a member of the Academy.

David says: “Anna is a phenomenal player and it’s wonderful to see her developing and making her mark over in America. Her success is an accumulation of hard work over time but it’s not just her innate natural talent that makes Anna special, as part of the Academy she is always willing and keen to help other young golfers and is out there setting an excellent example for them. She’s proving that girls are every bit as good as the boys – and sometimes a little better!”

The Vale Golf Club, based at the Vale Resort in Hensol near Cardiff, launched The Vale Academy in 2008 to put a development structure in place for young golfers. For more information, please visit www.vale-hotel.com.