‘He takes it all in his stride,’ says father of 10-year-old golfing sensation among top five in country for his age

A 10-year-old golfer from Northamptonshire is among the top five players in the country for his age, and has amassed more than 13,000 Instagram followers as a result of his talent.

Josh Bland, from Bugbrooke, first hit a golf ball aged four, but began taking it more seriously at the age of six.

Four years later, he now plays for the under 14s county team and has an adult’s handicap of 14.

His talents have attracted the attention of Tubes from Sky Sports Soccer AM, LADbible, SPORTbible, and Gaz Beadle from Geordie Shore – all of which the 10-year-old has now done appearances with.

Josh’s father Dan Bland, who likes golf himself and has been coaching his son since day one, said: “I’m unbelievably proud. He loves golf more than anything.

“He amazes me everyday with how good he is, and how dedicated and humble he remains.

“He tries so hard and I don’t have to encourage him – he’s the one trying to take me to the course and he’d play every day if he could.”

At the age of six, Josh got his first birdie on a par three, which Dan recorded and put on his personal Instagram account.

To their surprise, it reached more than a million views and was picked up by many golfing pages.

As Josh was wearing a hoodie with The Open on in the video, which is the oldest golfing tournament in the world, he and his dad were invited to Ireland to watch the tournament.

Geordie Shore’s Gaz Beadle, who has a golfing channel on YouTube, invited Josh to film a video with him back in March. This was his most successful video at the time, and the family still remains in touch with Gaz.

Peter Dale from Soccer AM, better known as ‘Tubes’, also has a channel and filmed a video with Josh – which came as a surprise to Dan, as it is typically high profile sporting stars who frequent Tubes’ channel.

The video was published around five days ago and already has more than 65,000 views.

At just 10 years old, Dan said: “He takes it all in his stride. He’s confident but down to earth.

“He’s reserved on the golf front and never comes across as arrogant to those he meets and plays against.”

Josh’s goal is to become a professional golfer on tour, and moving to America may be on the cards to make his dream a reality in years to come.

The next step, besides lots of practice and dedication, would be to land a golfing scholarship, but this does not typically occur until between the ages of 16 and 18.

Josh’s home club and membership is at Northants County Golf Club, and it was there that he secured his first handicap at the age of eight – which was 28, an adult’s handicap on an adult course.

He has since won many competitions on adult courses and Dan says to have cut his handicap to 14 is “really impressive”.

You can visit Josh’s Instagram account here.