TEN-year-old golfing sensation Adelaide Francis has been selected to represent Britain at the World Golf Junior Championships held on California's legendary Torrey Pines course this July.

The Nantyglo nipper with a putting pedigree that belies her age has already played on the San Diego green which plays host to the U.S. Open.

Addie is also familiar with the fairways of St Andrews after being invited to play there when the European Championships were held in Scotland, and the upcoming Welsh golfing star who has teed off all around the world is returning to the Golden State on the back of her best ever season.

Last year Addie won the British Callaway championships for girls aged 9-10, Monmouthshire Golf Club's Phil Gooding Cup, and of course, the World Odyssey Putting Championships in Torrey Pines last July. Addie ended the year by winning the Welsh Mini Masters with a round of 35 over nine holes.

Yet the young maestro may never have picked up a club in the first place if it wasn't for a simple twist of fate, as proud mum Tracey Francis explains.

"Addie comes from a non-golfing family, so golf would not have been a sport we would have chosen. Addie's father Tom used to be a rugby player but there are no golfers in the family. Addie got into the sport almost accidentally."

Tracey added, "Someone I work with asked me to drop some papers off for her at Alice Springs golf club, the first time I had ever been to a golf club in my life. Addie, who was with me, could see ladies hitting balls and asked if she could have a go. James Morgan, the pro there at the time, heard and offered Addie a little club.

"Even then she was tall for her age so she could hit the balls and he asked where she played. I said she had never picked up a club before, so he joked that we should take her back and we might have a Welsh champion one day!

"I would drive past the golf club and Addie would ask to stop, so I did take her back. She started with plastic clubs and Tri-Golf, and then entered the Welsh Mini Masters at Rhondda golf club where she met Ellen Jones and Zoe Thacker from Golf Development Wales.

"She won that and then won at the Celtic Manor so she was on their radar. The advice was to keep it fun and to keep playing other sports, the help from Golf Development Wales and her coach John MacDonald at Celtic Manor is really important.

"Last year was her most successful year, picked for the British junior golf tour, and going out to America last July.

Tracey explained, how golfing has also helped Addie's personal development in a myriad of ways.

"Having started at Alice Springs she now plays at Monmouthshire in Abergavenny where she often plays with Irene Dodd, the junior organiser, who is 84. They make quite a pair as they walk off down the fairway chatting away.

"One of the great things about golf is the etiquette and that is something which she has taken into the way she behaves, she is always extremely well mannered and I think golf etiquette has helped that."

As for Addie, she's just taking things in her swing, one putt at a time, and looking forward to the Torrey Pines tournament because, "Torrey Pines is my favourite course – not just because of the golf but the surfing beach nearby."

Obviously all that globetrotting is an expensive business and the British Junior Golf Tour has organised a grand prize draw which is taking place at the Monmouthshire Golf Club on July 4 to raise money in support of the trip to Torrey.

Tickets cost £1 and there are 50 prizes which range from a golf lesson with national coach Neil Matthews, to a short camping holiday for a family of five at Blossom Park. Tickets can be purchased at the reception area of the Abergavenny Chronicle.