KEY POINTS:
When the best women amateur golfers from Australia and New Zealand came to Titirangi in March last year for the national strokeplay championship, a diminutive Onehunga schoolgirl, who had just turned 13, led the field after 18 holes.
Few had heard of Larissa Eruera and, when she later faded out of contention, she was forgotten in the celebration of 14-year-old Sharon Ahn's victory in the event.
Not for long. Eruera, who must be the coolest teenager in New Zealand golf, built on her Titirangi experience with success on both sides of the Tasman and this month won the national matchplay title at Taupo.
She doesn't turn 15 until February and she may well be the youngest champion ever, but as she says: "I've always been playing people older than me and it doesn't worry me at all."
On her way to her Taupo victory she beat the national strokeplay champion, Yeong Song Kim, 4 and 2 before winning 5 and 3 against 17-year-old fellow Aucklander Dasom Lee in the final.
She came to golf at the Aviation Country Club when she was eight. Mum Maureen didn't play but Dad Aaron was very keen. Her first and only coach has been Arron Harding.
But golf was only one of her sports. She played cricket and soccer as well and did well enough in her studies at Cornwall Park Primary to earn an Endeavour Scholarship to St Cuthbert's College.
She was in the St Cuthbert's junior soccer team that won an Auckland championship but soccer and cricket have had to yield to golf as her career has progressed.
Two years ago she won the Maori under-19 title at Katikati and last year she made history at Gisborne by winning both the Maori women's strokeplay and matchplay titles, only the second person to achieve the feat and at 12 clearly the youngest.
She impressed the local newspaper by her poise and mature approach to the way golf should be played.
"You have to have a good head ... if something goes wrong you have to get over it quickly," she said.
"You can't allow yourself to get angry - you just have to move on."
Older and even wiser - at 14 - she has had a string of successes this year. Among her wins are the Australian junior championship (under 14), the Ruth Middleton strokeplay, the national under-15 championship, the national secondary school (14 years) title and, capping them all, the national matchplay crown.
She's off to Tasmania in January for the Australian junior championships again and hopes to earn a trip to the US for a tournament there. Her long-term ambition is to win a golf scholarship to an American college and progress to a professional career.
So how does she manage to fit in schoolwork with such a tough schedule of tournaments and practice?
"Sparc has helped me with a tutor for maths and science this year and next year I'll have a free option at school which will allow me to catch up stuff I've missed," she says.
"The scholarship is quite academic and St Cuthbert's is the top academic school so we're pressed to achieve excellence."
Score Larissa Eruera as a distinction in golf for 2006.
