Young outsider a hit at US Kids Golf tour

Now 11-year-old Maged Sallam is one of the most promising players at next week's US Kids Golf European Championship, which starts on Tuesday in East Lothian.

Sallam, who has a golfing handicap of 14 and regularly beats the adult players at his local Egyptian golf club Mena Hills, first came to the attention of players, mainly British and American ex-pats, when he started pestering members to have a go at playing.

"When he first came around the course he was just being a nuisance," said Harry Carson, 75, a regular player at Mena Hills and a member of the British Golf Society in Cairo.

"He has nothing really, he comes from a poor family and he didn't know anything about golf. But eventually someone let him hit a few balls and we realised he had obviously been watching very carefully and he was swinging beautifully." Since then Sallam's golfing game has gone from strength to strength. He played his first adult tournament in Egypt at the age of nine and won by a margin of six shots, and last year travelled to Scotland for the US Kids Golf European Championship, now in its third year at East Lothian.

His family cannot pay for his golf kit or travel expenses, so he is instead being supported by the British Golf Society and the Egyptian Golf Federation.

"His father said he doesn't care how much golf he plays as long as it doesn't interfere with his studies," said Carson. "He gets good grades in his school work, but his family has never seen him play golf."

Golf is not a popular game in Egypt, and there are fewer than 20 courses in the entire country. Justin Palmer, of US Kids Golf, says this makes Sallam's circumstances are unique. "It's even more impressive that he has a 14 handicap coming from a country where very little golf is played. To excel in an environment like that is truly remarkable."