\n James Hearne Jnr, 2, has made history at Worthing Golf Club as it marks its 120th anniversary year.\n<\/p>\n
\n His father, James Snr, thinks he could be the youngest member of any golf club in the UK, with many golfing stars joining far later \u2013 pro golfer Rory Mcllroy didn\u2019t become a member of a club until the age of seven.\n<\/p>\n
\n While most toddlers are learning to balance blocks or push toy cars, James is already adept at using a miniature putter sized for a four-year-old\u2014displaying skill and coordination which his teacher, Peter Taver Jones, describes as “astounding”.\n<\/p>\n
\n His family say that James, who has playing since the age of one, has been \u201ccaptivated by the game since he could walk\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n He first came into the contact with the sport when his maternal grandfather, a keen player, began taking him down to the putting green.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOne day we were round my in-laws and they had the golf on the telly,\u201d James Snr said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe was immediately drawn to the TV and started to mirror the swing of the golfers.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen you give him a cricket bat he can swing, he can catch and can turn round and throw a basketball in a hop. He has really good hand-eye-coordination \u2013 it\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n James Hearne Jnr with his father, James (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n In a twist that could prove to be a good omen, James shares his birthday, March 14, with another child prodigy – Albert Einstein.\n<\/p>\n
\n James\u2019 precociousness is particularly special for James Snr and his wife, Tammy, who were told they couldn\u2019t have children and welcomed James after IVF.\n<\/p>\n
\n While no one is predicting world championships just yet, Worthing\u2019s seasoned members can\u2019t resist but draw comparisons to golfing legends whose first steps on the fairway started early.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tiger Woods famously appeared on American television aged two, demonstrating his putting stroke and Rory McIlroy was driving balls 40 yards by the age of three.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cInitially, my wife and I thought his ability was normal,\u201d James Snr said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut then every time someone would see him, they would say \u2013 \u2018wow\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWith kids now everything is with an iPad or a phone \u2013 but I\u2019d like to keep him away from that for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hearne Jnr, 2, has made history at Worthing Golf Club as it marks its 120th anniversary year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-268112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}