Talented young golfer Emily Odwin has already won more titles than the number of birthdays she has celebrated in her short career.
Following a stellar 2017, the 13-year-old Odwin is taking aim at more glory on the greens this year.
“I hope to represent Barbados in the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championships in Jamaica in early July and the senior version of the Caribbean Amateur Championships in the Cayman Islands in first week of August,” Odwin told NATION SPORT in a wide-ranging interview.
Odwin said she was also looking forward to gaining national selection for the Junior British Open in Scotland and the Latin America Golf Invitational in Argentina, the IMG Junior World Challenge and the Doral Junior Golf Championships.
“I am also looking to make a successful defence of the titles I won this year such as the Sir Garry Sobers [Festival of Golf], the RBC Classic, the Barbados Junior Golf Championships and the Ladies Open and the Rockley Open,” she said.
In addition to those titles, the Queen’s College schoolgirl, captured the women’s championship of the Crane Classic and the Royal Westmoreland Ladies Open and was the individual champion at the Barbados Independence Invitational Games.
She also triumphed in the two Junior Order of Merit Series held last year and finished second at the Sagicor Barbados Open and was third in the 11-13 girls age group of the at the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championships.
For her exploits, Odwin was given special recognition by the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) as one of the outstanding junior athletes for the year at its recent annual awards ceremony at Hilton Barbados Resort.
“I don’t think there are in words to describe the way you feel getting recognised for represent your country. As a sportsperson, you don’t really do this for the awards,” said Odwin.
“You do this to bring glory to your country, to yourself, to your parents and everybody who has brought you to the point where you are to ensure they know that all their time is not being wasted. You do this to make them proud. The awards are just what come with being an athlete,” she added.
Odwin, who hails from St Silas Heights in St James, said she fell in love with golf after an uncle took her father on the range one day to hit balls to see if they were any good.
“I was eight [years old] at the time. I was in the golf cart, sitting, watching them hit, so I picked up a golf club and started hitting golf balls and that was the end of that; and here I am today,” she recalled.
The multi-talented Odwin has also participated in other sporting disciplines.
“Actually at the time, I started golf, I was a swimmer, I was playing tennis, I was playing soccer, I was into karate and I was a netballer as well. I was doing a lot of sports, but once I started golf, my heart was just into it,” said the former student of St Winifred’s School.
While you won’t find Odwin in the pool at the Wildey Aquatic Centre, the group member of the Salt Water Swimmers, has also achieved a major feat in open water swimming.
“I don’t do pool swimming but when I was ten [years old], I swam from Nevis to St Kitts in the Cross Channel Swim, which was approximately two and a half miles in just over an hour,” she noted.
It was not all podium finishes for Odwin last year as she was eighth among the 11-14 girls at the IMG Junior World Florida Challenge.
She also tied for eighth position among the 12-13 girls at the Doral Publix Junior Golf Classic when Laea Blakeley, Jason Johnson, Lennard Nutzi and Quinton Heljenek also represented Barbados. (EZS)
