Drive, pitch, putt, repeat ... stateside

Taimana Ngakuru-Smith, 17, will be heading to the University of California, San Diego next year on a full golf and academic scholarship. Photo / John Stone

Taimana Ngakuru-Smith first picked up a golf club when she was 10, now the 17-year-old will be jetting off to the University of California, San Diego on a full golf and academic scholarship.

Miss Ngakuru-Smith said her love of golf started in the backyard of her neighbour's house when her grandmother handed her a golf club and told her to have a go. From there it turned into a hobby and now she wants to make it her career.

In August next year, she will spend four years studying chemistry at the University of California, San Diego while working towards becoming a professional golfer.

"It's actually really scary. It only started to sink in a few months ago when my coach told me I was only about two per cent where I needed to be, but I'm confident I'll get there," she said.

The scholarship would cover everything except flights - including course fees, books and accommodation. Miss Ngakuru-Smith said she would also trial for the university's golf team.

The deputy head girl of Tauraroa Area School made the Northland Junior Girls Golf Team, who in 2013 went to Cambodia, and last year she made team captain.

Miss Ngakuru-Smith said she also had offers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Oklahoma State University.

"They're both really good universities so if I were to go I probably wouldn't be in the playing roster till my second or third year.

"I looked at [San Diego's level] and it is around the same as mine, so I chose there," she said.

Her golfing idol is Caroline Bon, a professional golfer who also attended Tauraroa Area School, rather than Kiwi golfing star Lydia Ko.

"She (Bon) shows you can go from a small area to something massive," she said.

Miss Ngakuru-Smith is at the Northland Golf Club about three days a week and when she's not there she is on the school field practising or inside doing drills.

She is also the leader of her school's kapa haka roopu and was the overall winner of the Marsden Lions Club's Young Ambassadors Award.

She loves kapa haka and if she can't find anywhere to do it in San Diego she will start a group herself. She said kapa haka would be one of many things she would miss.

Miss Ngakuru-Smith needed to pass NCEA level 3 with Merit this year to officially gain the scholarship but she was only 12 credits off.