Balancing on the edge of stardom: Curtis Cup can cement Carly Booth's reputation as one of golf's brightest prospects

AS FAR as Wally Booth is concerned there is no safety net, no fall-back, no opting out of the life he wants for his 15-year-old daughter, Carly.

Tough boy, Wally. Former schoolboy team-mate of Denis Law, former doorman for The Beatles, former Commonwealth Games wrestler, he's been the driving force behind Carly's rise and rise, the loving dad for sure but also the driven dad, the man with an unshakeable belief in the ability of his girl to go right to the top of the golf world.

So Carly says: "Why can't I go out with my friends and he's, like, that will come later." Wally says that when he was a sportsman he had no social life and no friends. "Carly has to show the same dedication," he insists.

And Carly asks: "What about school? What if golf doesn't work out? And dad's, like, why wouldn't it work out?"

Carly is a little confused about the school and college thing. Stay on and get a good education or cut and run to the professional game?

"Right now I don't have an answer for that," she says. "I don't know, honestly. I have so many different people saying 'no, you have to go (to college], it's gonna be awesome' and then people say 'no, you don't need college if you think you are good enough to turn pro'."

At home in Comrie, differing opinions. "Dad's not that bothered about school at all. He'd say, if you want, just stop school now. But my mum (Pauline] wants me to get an education, which is fair enough. She wants me to at least graduate high school and I want to at least graduate high school. We'll see how it goes. This is what my mum always tells me. You need something to fall back on in case the golf doesn't work out and my dad is, like, well, if you want to be a golfer you're gonna be a golfer."

What her future holds is a debate that will rumble on, but for now there is only one thing on her mind and that is the realisation of one of the big ambitions of her young life; namely, to play in the Curtis Cup. It all begins on Friday at the Old Course at St Andrews. A historic venue to mark a historic event. One month short of her 16th birthday, Carly is the youngest ever member of the Great Britain & Ireland team since the amateur event began 76 years ago.

She's there because of an extraordinary talent. She is the No.1 junior in Europe and the holder of the Scottish Under-21 and Under-18 titles. Two years ago she won Prince Andrew's Young Champions Trophy at Dundonald Links which brought her a scholarship in the States. She is also a member of Team Faldo, a select band of elite youngsters hand-picked for special tuition from the Ryder Cup captain.

She's young but she's confident. A little anxious maybe but in a good way. "The last competitive round on the Old Course I shot seven-under. That was last year at the St Rule. I like the Old Course. It's not the prettiest course but it's great fun to play."

This week is what all the sacrifices have been about; the time away from the family, the distance between her and her childhood friends, the regimented life of school and golf, school and golf in her adopted home of Phoenix, Arizona, where she spends hour upon hour hitting balls in a club called Superstition Mountain. She says that tournament play got in the way of her making it home for Christmas. She says it in a way that leaves you in little doubt that it hurt her. Fifteen years old, exiled in Arizona and no family Christmas. This girl must really want to be a golfer.

Her parents welcomed her home on Monday morning. It's been two years since she first went away and their daughter has no hint of a Scottish accent left. Her older brother, Wallace (who will be competing in the Scottish Amateur at the Duke's Course at St Andrews at the same time as Carly is playing the Curtis Cup) says it is his mission to get her Scot-ified again.

Pauline just laughs. "She's all 'cool' and 'like' and 'awesome' and it's never half past the hour or a quarter past. It's brilliant to have her home because it's been terribly hard at times. We speak a lot on the phone but it's not the same. She sends us pictures over the internet and that's how she's tried to maintain her friendships here.

"You know, at the start, when she wanted to go to America, I wasn't sure. She was so keen to go but was so young. I asked myself, 'is this right?' but decided that we had to let her go. If the golf didn't work out then at least she gave it her very best shot.

"It would have been awful in years to come if she'd said to us, 'you know, if only you'd let me go to America I could be a successful golfer now'. There are a lot of drawbacks to it but she's doing what she wants to do."

In Arizona, she was staying with a family who looked after her well and was going to a school, Red Mountain High, that's a world away from what she was used to. "My high school has nearly 3,000 kids for only three years. So, I mean, 'wow!'. We have 150 kids for those three years at my old school."

The high school term begins anew on August 11 but Carly is committed to tournaments at that point and where she gets her schooling from now on is a topic that's still up in the air in the Booth household. If there is an uncertainty there it doesn't seem to bother her, though. "A lot of people ask me what about my social life as well and I'm, like, well, I've always had to sacrifice a lot of that for my golf, my sport. I've kind of gotten used to it as I've grown up."

Sacrifice. That's the byword. She wants to play another Curtis Cup after this, wants to play a Junior Solheim Cup and then go professional with Lorena Ochoa as her inspiration. She thinks the Mexican is awesome and unbeatable. That's the standard she aspires to. Greatness.

Home is important to her but if the professional life works out she can't base herself anywhere else but America. Maybe she'll move to California but she's not sure. "There are some really weird people there, insane people, but there are insane people everywhere."

For now, it is all about the Curtis Cup. There are four Scots in the team of eight girls and, if the weather holds, crowds of 8,000 a day are hoped for. That is certainly Carly's wish. "I've been in front of crowds and cameras and everything," she says. "I'm used to it. But it's gonna be different. I'm gonna be a lot more nervous. A lot of the time I play better in front of crowds but also I get very nervous. Sometimes nerves can get the better of me."

If she can conquer her anxiety then this promises to be another dramatic week in her eventful young life.