LEE SHEPHERD has been running the rule over the Halifax, Huddersfield Union’s next set of rising golf stars – and he’s been very impressed with what he has seen so far.

A group of 10 youngsters, with ages ranging from 10 to 16, from a variety of clubs in the Halifax, Huddersfield Union, attended a skills and coaching session at Stadium Golf under the guidance of leading PGA Teaching professional Shepherd.

The idea behind the scheme is to provide top-level coaching for those juniors who are showing reasonable potential, and who have the ability to become future members of the Union’s junior set-up.

“We ran through a variety of practice methods, skill tests and also spent some time on a one-to-one basis,” explained Shepherd.

“As well as giving them an individual lesson, one of the aims was to discover what the lads were like and to establish how long they had been playing and what they had previously achieved.

“For instance you may have a lad who started as a 24-handicapper and has quickly come down to 15 and shows a lot of potential. Where on the other hand you may have a youngster who has been at 15 for some time, and doesn’t look like making much further improvement.

“I was really impressed, not only with their golf and general attitude to the game, but also the incredible confidence the lads showed.

“It’s quite normal for boys of that age to be confident around their own friends, but it’s very unusual to find such confidence when you take them out of their comfort zone and put them among a group of strangers.

“Hopefully we’ll be running some more sessions in the future.”

Among those invited for the first session were Jack Bates and Oliver Caton from Outlane, Kieran Goldspink from Castlefields, James Edwards, Matt Holden and Tom Stoker, from Lightcliffe, Sean Campbell and Luke Jessop, from Meltham, Jacob Scargill, from Hanging Heaton, and Calloway Tooby, from Elland.