Catherine Bell with the trophy for player of the tournament at the 2015 Interprovincial Tournament. Photo suppliedFor Ashburton born golfer Catherine Bell, winning and the golf course were always going to go hand-in-hand.

For the daughter of accomplished golfers Robbie and Pauline Bell, who have both been club champions at Ashburton Golf Club, giving the sport a go was always going to happen.

“I first started playing when I was 12 and that was just because of my parents,” said Bell.

“At first it was just something to do but in Year 9 I started to play more seriously.” Entering as many tournaments as she could, Bell gave up on playing netball and tennis to focus on her golf.

“I was just juggling between too many sports so I had to give up netball and tennis,” she said.

“Giving up netball was probably the toughest thing.”

Bell said one of the advantages of golf compared to netball is that it is an individual sport, but can also be played as a team sport.

The turning point was when Bell decided to take golf more seriously at around age 14, when she found herself winning plenty of local tournaments.

She won the Ashburton Golf Club Champs at the age of 15, beating her mother in the final, making it a Bell one-two with her father taking out the men’s top honours.

Bell first represented her region flying the Aorangi flag at the Women’s Interprovincial Tournament, before switching allegiance to Canterbury. Should she make the Canterbury squad this year, it will be her fifth time wearing the red shirt.

Bell said her biggest moment representing Canterbury came at the 2015 Interprovincial, which was hosted at the Ashburton Golf Club, where Canterbury won the tournament for the first time since 1988.

“Winning it there was awesome because family and friends were able to come and watch,” she said.

“It was an advantage (playing at Ashburton) because I knew the course like the back of my hand and all the girls had played there in the past.”

Not only did Bell pick up the team title, but she also collected the award for player of the tournament. Bell said that while it was her proudest team achievement, her best personal achievement was probably making it in to the Junior New Zealand Team that travelled to Australia.

This year, due to work commitments, Bell said she is not able to play as much golf as she would like, with work on Saturdays preventing her from entering weekly Saturday tournaments. However, she still attempts to get out to hit balls three times a week, and play at least one round.

Having a crack at making a career out of golf was something Bell attempted, but was not quite able to make it work.

“There was six months were I just focused on golf and playing as many tournaments as possible with a bit of part-time work on the side but it didn’t work out,” she said.

“Looking back on it there are things I would do differently. It was always going to be difficult to make it work and it would always be easier with more money behind you.”

Currently a member at the Christchurch Golf Club and playing off a +1 handicap, the 23-year- old said it is not something she worries about.

“I just go out and play now and don’t really think about my handicap anymore,” she said.

With golf being as much a mental game as it is a skill game, anxiety is one thing Bell said she has struggled with over the years.

“Anxiety is probably the biggest thing. I’ve been able to control it more as I have gotten older but it is easy to get more nervous if you are losing and go out thinking you have to win,” she said.

Bell said her focus for the rest of the year will be on the inter-club competitions where the Canterbury squad is selected from, before the interprovincial competitions begin, wrapping up with the national Interprovincial in December.

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 27 July 2017