Ten Scots prodigies who can become stars in 2005

IAN MILLARVIE

Boxing

Scottish sporting fans can look forward to the first sighting of a phenomenon perhaps matched only by the mystery of the Loch Ness monster, when heavyweight boxing prospect Ian Millarvie makes his first foray into the professional sport later this month. The 24-year-old plasterer from Hamilton - all 6ft 5in and 17-and-a-half stone of him - will make his debut at his new manager and promoter Tommy Gilmour’s St Andrews club in Glasgow on 31st. After that, the quest to bring the Lonsdale Belt for a heavyweight north of the border for the first time will begin in earnest.

Millarvie had a successful amateur career and represented Scotland at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester where he lost a controversial 26-24 points decision to Gozie Dijeh of Nigeria in the quarter-finals. However, as he looks forward to the more rigorous demands of professional boxing, the Lanarkshire man admits: " I haven’t really whipped my style into the professional game yet so I don’t know what I’ll be like until I get into the ring.

"But I’ve been training for a year in preparation for this time. I’ve been as heavy as 20 stone for some fights in the past and I think I was about 18-and-a-half stone for the Commonwealth Games. But I will be experimenting with my weight in the first few fights to see where I am most comfortable. I’m possibly two years away from a title challenge but it’s up to Tommy. I’ll take it one fight at a time and if a title shot comes up I’ll take it."

The ebullient Gilmour is caught in a peculiar situation. Knowing the lack of numbers on the heavyweight scene means any sort of showing by Millarvie in his first few fights will set off calls for a title challenge, has to be countered by the fact that the newest recruit is all but learning his craft from scratch.

"Ian’s got the talent but first of all he needs experience," says Gilmour. "He’s only fought in fights of four or five two-minute rounds so we need to take him up to six and eight three-minute rounds and then up to 10 and 12 rounds.

"But at 24, he’s only a baby in heavyweight terms so there’s no rush, there’s no need to fast-track him."

JOANNE FINCH
Athletics

Still 16 years of age, Glasgow's Joanne Finch was the second youngest of eight female middle- distance runners selected by double Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes to attend her first month-long training camp in South Africa in autumn.

Holmes' intentions in setting up the camp in Potchefstroom, the university town south west of Johannesburg that has been her winter base for the last eight years, was to instil in Britain's next generation of female middle-distance runners the characteristics and qualities required to pursue a full-time athletics career. Travel, full-time training, the demands of the media and various other stresses, strains and pressures - even deliberate airport delays were factored in - formed the programme for the eight girls, but at the end of the camp Finch was singled out by Holmes as potentially the greatest beneficiary.

The hard evidence of this will come next year, of course, but Finch, who is focusing this winter on the indoor rather than the cross-country circuit, is in no doubt that the Holmes camp will prove a life-altering experience. "It made me much more aware of how to set out my goals and to be more positive about them," says Finch. "Kelly said that I wasn't the fastest at the camp, but she felt that I could improve the most and that's really encouraging."

Finch, an AAAs under-17 bronze medallist last season, doesn't turn 17 until August, so her ambitions remain focused on youth events. Though she won't rule out the next Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, it would be a huge surprise if she finds herself in contention. In the shorter term, the European juniors and World Youth Championships are more achievable goals.

PAUL DiRESTA
Motorsport

When motor racing fans are asked in future years which town they see as the home of the sport in Scotland, it could be that Knockhill, Duns or Twynholm are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, the response could be Bathgate, the West Lothian town that now boasts at least two drivers of world-class promise.

Both come from the same extended family: Dario Franchitti, one of the biggest names in American Indy Racing, and Paul DiResta, the 18-year-old who recently became the youngest recipient of the BDRC Young Driver of the Year accolade, and the son of Louis, the winner of four Scottish Formula Ford Championships. Then there is Dario's brother, Marino, and DiResta's younger brother, Stefan, who is showing similar promise in the school of kart racing that produces so many champions.

It is Paul DiResta, though, who may prove to be the biggest of all. "He has done better at karting than Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Dario," said Louis DiResta. "I saw a spark in Dario as a youngster, but I see a bigger spark in Paul."

Franchitti has confessed that he thinks the sky to be the limit for DiResta. Yet instead of following his cousin across the Atlantic, DiResta has taken the first tentative steps towards Formula One by signing with McLaren's F1 engine partner Mercedes, with whom he will compete in the Formula Three Euroseries in 2005. Having finished third in the Formula Renault UK Championship in 2004, this represents a logical step with an outfit renowned for their driver development programme, as well as a formidable challenge for a driver so young.

Franchitti offers the most glowing reference: "Talent is not an issue: he has the talent to do anything he wants. He might make it in America, he might do it in F1 or in sports cars like Allan McNish. It depends on the opportunity he gets."

ADAM COX
Gymnastics

In gymnastics, confidence counts for a lot. Personality, and the character to handle the pressure of competition, can be as important as agility in the business of winning medals. In which case, Adam Cox seems to be doubly blessed by having an abundance of both.

The recently turned 18-year-old from Livingston asserts that his goal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 is to win not just one gold - as his compatriot Steve Frew did at the Manchester games in 2002 - but two.

Before that, there are important targets to hit in this, his first year as a senior. Both the world championships in Melbourne and the European championships are on the agenda, but he doesn't sound apprehensive; rather, the signs are that he will negotiate the step up to senior competition with little difficulty.

Cox already has senior Commonwealth Games experience, having been the youngest male competitor at Manchester, where he made the final of the high bar. This is his strongest discipline, and he proved it again in Bendigo in November, where he shone at the Commonwealth Youth Games, winning two golds in the men's artistic all-rounder and on the high bar, and another three bronze medals, in the men's artistic team, floor exercise and pommel horse.

"It was what I hoped and expected," he says of the youth games, "but I wasn't absolutely sure, because I didn't really know who I'd be up against. It is a big jump up to the seniors, but I know what to expect having competed in Manchester."

Cox began competing as a gymnast at the age of eleven and won a gold medal at the World School Games. He seems almost dismissive of such achievements however, and prefers to look ahead, with confidence, to taking on the seniors.

As an young gymnast, he also knows that it is the next four years of his career that could really count. "I'm meant to hit my peak in 2008," he says, "which would be at the time of the Beijing Olympics."

Perfect timing, you'd think. But Cox reveals that he has other ambitions, too. "I'm going to be full time until 2006, then after the Commonwealth Games I want to go to university. I want to be a PE teacher."

ROSS EDGAR
Cycling

The 2005 campaign starts early for track cyclists - as early as next weekend, when in his adopted home city of Manchester, Ross Edgar will compete for Britain in the World Cup meeting that kicks off what could be a breakthrough year for the 21-year-old Anglo-Scot.

As his performances at the Athens Olympics suggested, it would appear that Edgar, who was brought up in Newmarket but whose father is from Kilwinning, may be poised to emerge from the formidable shadows cast by Chris Hoy and Craig MacLean. Like the two more senior riders, Edgar is a sprinter. Sprinters don't tend to peak until their mid to late-twenties, but Edgar's two fifth-place finishes in Athens, in the sprint and keirin competitions, suggest that he, like Hoy and MacLean, is on track to stockpile quite a collection of world, Commonwealth and Olympic medals over the next decade.

His most notable success so far was at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, where he joined forces with Hoy and MacLean in the team sprint to win a bronze medal. His best individual performances, however, came in Athens.

Edgar is a product of the World Cycling Centre, based in Switzerland. He enrolled there in 2002, spending three seasons training with some of the best young riders from around the world, and training under the watchful eye of legendary French sprinter, Frederic Magne. "That was quite a big stepping stone for me. I went in doing 10.7 for the 200m and came out doing 10.3 - so I made a big improvement."

Back injuries have held him back over the past couple of seasons, but in Athens he felt that he was able to compete on equal terms with the very best in the world. "That was the first time I've felt I was mixing it with the top guys," he says. "It felt pretty good."

With track cycling having now switched from a summer to a winter discipline, Edgar hasn't enjoyed much of a break since Athens. He recently returned from the World Cup in Los Angeles, where he wasn't on top form, and is eyeing Manchester and a return to LA for the world championships in March as his next major targets. After that, he says, "the Commonwealth Games overshadow everything else."

JAMIE McCLUSKEY
Football

And so the Easter Road conveyor belt remains in fine working order. Jamie McCluskey is the most recent model to fall off the production line, and perhaps the most exciting starlet to thrill supporters already blessed with an abundance of young talent. The 17-year-old has hovered around the fringes of the Hibs first team this season and last, but shone when he appeared as a second-half substitute in the recent 2-1 win over Inverness Caley Thistle.

So impressive was McCluskey's performance in that game that it overshadowed Craig Brewster's managerial debut. It also prompted comparisons with Wayne Rooney, sensibly brushed aside by manager Tony Mowbray. Apart from anything else, McCluskey is about the size of one of Rooney's thighs. Yet Mowbray was moved to admit that McCluskey, whom he has called the most naturally gifted member of his squad, has the potential "to be a tremendous player for Hibs in the future".

Before he began making headlines for his talent, McCluskey's most notable achievement was in becoming, last season, the youngest player to feature in a top flight game in Scotland in 57 years, appearing against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park at the age of just 16 years, 79 days.

The club’s youth coach John Parks says: "I've yet to see another player in Scotland like him. There isn't one, he's totally unique. I'd watch him all day with a ball at his feet. He has been called Jinky ever since I've known him and if you look at him there are definite comparisons in terms of size and style of play."

Most of the tricks have so far been witnessed only by team mates on the training ground, but it can be only a matter of a time before the 17-year-old produces something truly sensational during a match. All of which makes it no wonder, really, that Hibs have McCluskey tied to the club until 2009.

ROSS FORD
Rugby

A big, strapping player, 20-year-old Ross Ford arguably looks more like a back-row forward than a hooker. And perhaps that's because he was a back-row forward, until he was encouraged to swap positions by his first professional coach.

Ford was the youngest player to sign with The Borders when Scotland's third professional team was launched at the start of season 2002/03. Former All-Blacks forwards coach Tony Gilbert was the man put in charge of the side, and in the then-18-year-old Ford, fresh from representing Scotland in the sevens tournament at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, he reckoned he had a hooker equipped for the modern game, both in his ability and his size - 6ft 1in, and weighs 16st 7lbs.

To his credit, Ford accepted and seemed to relish the challenge. Many 18-year-olds might not have been quite so willing, especially those with Ford's pedigree. By 18, the ex-Kelso player had already captained Scotland under-16s and represented Scotland at under-18 and under-19 level as a back row forward, with his favourite position as blindside flanker.

In his first season, Ford had to bide his time, but he did so patiently. He spent much of the season watching his new side from the Netherdale stand, but there was little doubt that full time training, and the opportunity to work with and learn from experienced new team-mates such as Gary Armstrong, Doddie Weir, George Graham and his eventual rival for the hooker position, Stevie Scott, would prove beneficial.

But it has taken until this, his third pro season, for Ford to make the breakthrough. He is now a regular starter for his club and he made his international test debut in November when he was introduced as a replacement during the opening match of the 2004 Abbey Autumn Tests against Australia at Murrayfield, and he looks certain to challenge Gordon Bulloch - as well as Bulloch's club mate, Scott Lawson - for a place in the international side during the next Six Nations series.

Like his Borders club mate, Chris Cusiter, who broke into the national side last year and is now one of the first names Matt Williams puts on the team sheet, Ford is a member of the Scottish Institute of Sport. And though he looks young, he is maturing into the player Tony Gilbert imagined he might become three years ago.

GORDON GOUDIE
Cricket

When Scotland recorded their first modern day victory against a Test nation by defeating Bangladesh in September, it was for many a 17-year-old bowler making his test debut for his country who provided the outstanding contribution.

Against Bangladesh, the prodigiously talented Gordon Goudie, who plays for Stoneywood-Dyce in Scotland's cricketing heartland of Aberdeenshire, claimed two wickets and saw two simple catches from his bowling as the Saltires snatched a dramatic final ball victory that applied a little gloss to what was otherwise a fairly miserable season for the national side.

Even before this, however, Goudie, who was recently named Scotland's young player of the year, had been attracting attention south the border. He could be playing county cricket sooner rather than later, with former Scotland bowling coach and England test bowler Mike Hendrick rumoured to fancy Goudie for Derbyshire, having first seen him in action as a 13-year-old. He had already been playing cricket for three years then, having joined Stoneywood-Dyce at the age of just ten.

At 12, Goudie was junior player of the year for his club, and three years later he was awarded man of the match in the European under-15 championship match against Denmark. Better was to follow: in 2003 he showed his versatility, scoring runs as well as wickets for the Scotland under-17 team as they became European champions. And, still aged just 16, he was selected for the tournament "dream team" of the ICC European under-19 World Cup qualifying competition in Holland, which went on to play in last year's under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.

Goudie's problem in Scotland, perhaps, has been that there are so few other players as good as him. Headlines were made recently when he was left out of the new Cricket Scotland Academy, because, according to reports, he was too good.

Reacting to the rumoured interest from Derbyshire and other counties, the Stoneywood-Dyce batsman David Lamb recently said: "He came to the club as a ten-year-old and his seven years here have been great. I know the club is proud to see former player, Kyle Coetzer, doing well in England, and we would love to see Gordon follow suit and get the chance to play county cricket."

ANDREW MURRAY
Tennis

Andrew Murray is one to watch this year, provided you have a head for heights. The Dunblane-born tennis player is planning on soaring up the ATP rankings and anyone intent on following his progress could end next year with a crick in their neck.

Requiring a knee operation to rectify problems cased by hard courts and a growth spurt that saw him shoot up to 6ft 1in, he endured a frustrating start to the 2004 season, missing six months of competitions. Since then there has been no holding him back. The US Open junior title was secured in September and then he went on to fare exceptionally well on the Futures circuit, winning back-to-back clay events in October and adding further titles as the year reached its conclusion.

He also made it into the Great Britain Davis Cup team and was named BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year. But while some would be willing to bask in the triumphs of the past six months, Murray has already shifted his focus to the upcoming season. Only 18, he now plans to concentrate his energies on the men’s circuit, where he has been moving swiftly up the world rankings. His latest triumph saw him jump 122 places to move to No.411 and the target is now to reach the top 100 by the time the French Open starts in May.

Having enlisted the help of Colombian veteran Pato Alvarez, the respected coach has already been effusive in praise of his protege’s form and attitude and claims the degree of constant improvement needed to achieve such lofty goals is well within the young Scot’s capabilities. The Challenger events in Chile next month are the next stepping stones, and impressive performances there are expected to guarantee an appearance in his first ATP Tour event at Vina del Mar at the start of February. Appearances in Tour events proper will help catapult him towards his goal of a top 100 ranking, with many observers suggesting that he could even edge closer to the top 50 if he builds on his current form.

CARLY BOOTH
Golf

The first thing to be said about Carly Booth, Scottish golf’s most high-profile youngster, is that she has a sporting pedigree to be proud of. Father Wallace was a good enough wrestler to win a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games and older brother, Wallace junior, who attends Augusta State University in the United States on a golf scholarship, has already represented his country at boys and youths level.

But the younger Booth - who has a nine-hole course in her own backyard on which to practise - looks to be the special one. Already the 12-year-old from Comrie in Perthshire has provoked double-takes from two of British golf’s most celebrated names. After playing with Carly in the pro-am preceding last year’s British Masters at the Forest of Arden near Birmingham - and winning the event - former Open and Masters champion Sandy Lyle was fulsome in his praise for her already blossoming game, saying: "It was very tough out there and she had to hit the ball very hard for an 11-year-old. But from what I could see the fundamentals of the golf swing and the speed she generates, it’s already clear she’s going to be a powerful golfer.

I don’t know what the genes in the family are as far as height is concerned, but if she ever matches Michelle Wie for inches then she could hit the ball more than 300 yards. Even now she hits it around 240. And it’s not as if she’s just popping it up in the air. There’s a bit of a zing about her shots."

That quality of strike was just one of the things to convince six-time major champion Nick Faldo that Booth was worth a spot in the 2005 line-up of "Team Faldo", a scheme set up to identify, coach and develop the next generation of British major champions. During 2004 Booth won two of three "Faldo Series" events in Scotland and was second in the year-ending grand final, competing against youngsters both older and bigger then herself.

"I have been watching Carly closely since her appearance at the Faldo Series final a couple of years back and she has been hugely impressive," said Faldo after announcing Booth’s involvement. "Carly is an exceptional talent and I'm looking forward to working closely with her throughout the year."

Happily, any lingering bad feeling between the Booth family and the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association seem to have been put to rest, with Carly having chosen to represent her father’s country of birth rather than her English mother’s. At one point last year, however, relations had all but broken down between the two camps, the result of what the ever-voluble Wallace Booth senior, who was a bouncer at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on the night Brian Epstein first saw the Beatles, called "a lot of jealousy and bitchiness".

"At the start of last year I got a call from an SLGA official warning me to keep a low profile," he explains. "Then we got a letter from them saying that Carly was too young to be selected for the national team. Too young! What the heck has that got to do with anything? If you are good enough, you are old enough."

True. And already, at least according to such sound judges as Lyle and Faldo, Carly Booth is both.


And also ten prodigies from the world sporting scene...

MARTYNAS ANDRIUSKEVICIUS
Basketball

Even at 7ft 3in this 18-year-old Lithuanian still has much to learn, but it will probably not prevent him from being the first European, and only second non-American, to be the top pick in next year’s NBA Draft.

The lanky centre has averaged a measly 1.4 points per game for his club Zalgiris Kaunas in this season’s Euroleague, yet the lack of US giants means that potential alone will give him a starting salary of $3m-plus if he opts to join the NBA this summer.

Blessed not only with size, but with a combination of a deft touch and a tough streak, it may still take him a few years of lifting weights and diligent learning to fully develop into a superstar. He has the perfect mentor at Zaligris in Arvydas Sabonis, arguably the greatest centre of all time, despite moving to the NBA only when injuries had taken their toll.

ALEXANDER OVECHKIN
Ice hockey

The annual National Hockey League Entry Draft is normally a lottery. Raw talent means wild guesses. Precociousness doesn’t always mature into dominance. Yet there was genuine anticipation over which team ended up with the first choice in last summer’s draw because this was the season when Alexander Ovechkin left his native Russia for the richer pastures of North America.

The perennially-useless Washington Capitals are strong favourites to land the 19-year-old at the end of the current strike by NHL players.

Ovechkin, a speedy, forceful winger, has already earned comparisons with ageing great Mario Lemieux, and even the peerless Wayne Gretzky. "Ovechkin is a 100% complete package," says Goran Stubb, European scouting director for the NHL. "He can skate, pass, score, hit, check. He’s a two-way player, but also a real power forward. He has an excellent attitude. Everything is 10 out of 10 points."

ROHAN TENDULKAR
Cricket

The 14-year-old nephew of Sachin Tendulkar is making a mark in Mumbai schools cricket, and may one day challenge his uncle as one of the best Indian players. Born just two months after Tendulkar made his test debut as a 16-year-old, Rohan recently scored the winning runs in a knock of 73 for his uncle’s alma mater, the Indian Education Society’s (IES) New English School, Bandra, against the famous Anjuman-I-Islam in the semi-finals of the under-17 Harris Shield after scoring two half-centuries earlier in the tournament. Famous as the breeding ground for players such as Sachin, Bangra’s stock has risen since posting the highest total in all grades of cricket with 1121-6 declared.

"My uncle is my inspiration" says Rohan. "I have received valuable coaching tips from him, particularly about my stance and the right way to cradle my elbow while batting."

Like Sachin, Rohan is an occasional off-spin bowler. He bats right handed in the middle order: 95 is his highest total.

RAFAEL NADAL
Tennis

Already a superstar in Majorca (and not many can say that) Nadal is rapidly becoming the darling of the rest of Spain and, if the past 12 months is anything to go by, it will not be long before he is the latest, greatest thing to happen to tennis. Rafael Nadal is the real deal, and he is still only 18.

Had it not been for a stress fracture to his ankle during the spring, he might well have announced his arrival during the run-up to the French Open. Instead, he had to wait until August to win his first career title - in Sopot - and to use the Davis Cup as his launching pad.

On his Davis Cup debut, he won the fifth and deciding rubber against the Czech Republic in the first round and, showing it was no fluke, he won the decisive third point against France in the semi-final. In the final he crushed Andy Roddick to set up Spain’s eventual victory. Big, strong and seemingly nerveless, he will frighten the life out of everyone when he grows up.

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
Motorsport

There is no question that the outrageously gifted Heikki Kovalainen is a superstar waiting to happen. He announced himself by winning the 2004 Nissan World Series - the single-seater championship sits alongside F3000, and is seen as one of the two direct feeders to F1 - where the 22-year-old won six of 18 highly competitive rounds. The Finn then outdid that performance by demolishing the world’s leading Formula One and World Rally Championship stars - including the respective world champions in Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Loeb - by winning the end-of-season Race of Champions at the Stade de France in Paris despite being a last-minute invitation.

Full of character and emotion, an abiding memory of 2004 was of the Finn leaping on to the roof of his Ferrari to celebrate beating Schuey. Undecided yet on what he will race in 2005, Kovalainen has already demonstrated his ability to beat the world’s best. With his combination of raw talent, elfinesque good looks and bubbly personality, expect to hear a lot more of Heikki Kovalainen in 2005.

ROBINHO
Football

Now 20, Robinho, real name Robson de Souza, is being tipped as the next truly great Brazilian footballer. "Great," that is, in the mould of Pele, the legend with whom he was first compared as a 15-year-old.

In 2002 his club, Santos, put him on a contract stipulating that any transfer fee would have to be in excess of £25m for Robinho to leave before 2007. With the transfer market all but collapsing in the past two seasons, it is perhaps only this that has prevented him leaving for Europe, but his departure may be hastened by his mother’s recent kidnapping.

Marina Lima de Souza was released a fortnight ago having been held for six weeks by armed criminals in Sao Paulo. There had been reports that Real Madrid were in the hunt for Robinho. It’s understood that the kidnappers demanded - and got - a huge ransom for his mother’s return.

Robinho played his first game two days after the ordeal ended, but the feeling is that it may have left him with a more urgent desire to leave Brazil for Europe.

DAMIANO CUNEGO
Cycling

The Italian tifosi like their sports stars to have personality and panache as well as exceptional ability, so it is little wonder that they are falling over themselves to acclaim 22-year-old Damiano Cunego, who has all three. Having finished 2004 as the world’s No.1 ranked cyclist thanks to victories in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour of Lombardy, it would seem that Cunego is an athlete blessed with a rare combination of gifts.

The feeling is that he can achieve whatever he wants, and whether in 2005 that includes the Tour de France remains to be seen, but the prospect of the Italian prodigy challenging Lance Armstrong is tantalising. Cunego has previously stated that a defence of the Giro is his priority, and that would make it unlikely that he would be at his best for the Tour. But with his stock and others’ expectations rising all the time, it would not be a surprise to see him start the world’s greatest race as Armstrong’s biggest rival in the American’s bid for a record seventh consecutive win.

JUDD TRUMP
Snooker

Judd Trump is 15, and looks even younger. But already he is being feted as the most promising snooker player to emerge since Ronnie O’Sullivan - and potentially he could prove to be better.

Having already given up his early sporting career as a promising goalkeeper in order to concentrate on snooker, by nine Judd had recorded his first century break in practice, and by ten he had done it in competition. At the same age he won the English under-15 championship.

Then in March this year came his first 147, in an under-16 tournament in Leicester. He was only 14 years, 208 days - 255 days younger than O’Sullivan when, 13 years earlier, he recorded his first competitive maximum break. In the world under-21 championship in Ireland, the precious English prodigy progressed to the semi-finals and looked odds on to become the youngest winner, only to lose 8-7 to Thailand’s Kobkit Palajin.

If Judd doesn’t make it, another one of the West Country dynasty might. Younger brother Jack, 12, is the English under-13 champion.

RYAN MOORE
Golf

The 21-year-old player has just enjoyed the most sensational amateur season since his incomparable countryman Bobby Jones, who in 1930 won the Grand Slam of four - the British and US Open and Amateur tournaments.

Moore’s achievements aren’t yet quite on that scale, but Golf World magazine was recently moved to claim that he had played "the greatest amateur season in golf’s modern era". It was a season which included victories in the NCAA Championship, the US Public Links Championship, Sahalee Players’ Championship, Western Amateur and the US Amateur. But the player from Puyallup is not turning professional immediately. Instead, he is continuing his university studies, in communications and public relations at UNLV college.

He has said, however, that he doesn’t feel this will arrest his development as a golfer, and he revealed that he is merely following the advice of the sage Arnold Palmer, his playing partner at the 2003 Masters, who told him to enjoy a full college and amateur career before turning pro.

Next year he will have the opportunity almost to emulate Jones, or at least to win a major, having qualified for the Masters, the US Open at Pinehurst and the British Open at St Andrews. This is one American we are all hoping to see more of in 2005.

JAMES ‘FLEX’ LEWIS
Bodybuilding

Welshman James ‘Flex’ Lewis is already freakily huge, and now that he has come under the wing of six-times Mr Olympia Dorian Yates, looks set to become even larger. Although bodybuilders do not reach their peak until their thirties, at this rate it’s only a matter of time before the biggest 21-year-old in the sport’s history begins to emulate the feats of his legendary mentor. Already European under-21 champion, he has dominated the junior ranks, and guest-posed at this year’s British Grand Prix.