BAJAN TEEN

By NICK MAITLAND nickmaitland@nationnews.com

Watch out Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and world number one Scottie Scheffler.

Barbadian golfer Christian Mason has officially begun his ascent up the professional golfing ranks, where he hopes to have a successful and impactful career.

The 19-year-old, who hails from St Philip, officially became a professional earlier this year after successfully navigating the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) qualifying competition in Los Angeles last month.

As part of his professional training, the former Queen’s College student attained a golf management degree from Professional Golfers Career College, which is a prerequisite to become a professional with the PGA.

Having been a golfer since the age of eight and even in 2017 captaining the Barbados junior team which included the likes of female golf star Emily Odwin and current Barbados Open champion Xzavier Wiggins, Mason told

MIDWEEK SPORT of his excitement and relief at attaining one of his many career goals.

Big relief

“When I finished the tournament, it was a big relief for me mentally because the biggest part of it for me was getting out of my head and being able to zone in and get the job done,” Mason said.

“I feel relieved but at the same time, I still have a lot of work to do as I am now starting. I have to really put in some work now. Right now, I am playing on the Pepsi tour in California but then I might go to play some qualifiers for the US Open and other major tournaments. I have a lot of work to do with the PGA. I am not a Class A professional yet. I have two more levels to go and then I would be a class A, which is the highest standard of PGA professionals. I want to achieve that and it would open more doors for me.”

Mason also gave high praise to his many coaches who assisted him along the way, and he also hopes to have a similar impact on the next generation in times to come.

Helped by many

“In Barbados I had a few coaches. Denny Foster, Bobby Edghill, Sean Edey and a lot of pioneer golfers in Barbados helped me when I was a junior, guided me in the right path and got me to this level,” Mason noted.

“They taught me a lot of personal things as well. Golf is such a mental sport, if you let it, it would take a toll on you mentally and physically. As a junior, I was suffering mentally with anger fits and they taught me lessons about it.

“Now, the mental toll is a lot more because I’m playing with golfers who are a lot better than the ones I was playing against before. There’s a lot more at stake and the tournaments are getting bigger. The toll is more but I’ve learnt to control it a lot more from experience.”

“I would also love to grow the game in Barbados too and see what I can do to get kids out here learning golf and showing them the same benefits of the game. I worked with the PGA and their junior league as well. I think Barbados has produced a lot of good golfers. I grew up with Emily and Xzavier and was their captain in 2017. If we keep up the support for golf, we will go a long way in the future.”

Teenaged Barbadian golfer Christian Mason has made a major breakthrough,

joining the pro ranks. (GP)