GOLF starlet Kelly Tidy is going from strength to strength.

The 12-year-old, from Harwood, has added the English Girls' U13s title to her growing list of honours - and is still hunting for more.

She competes in the Northern Girls' Championships at Westerhope, Newcastle, tomorrow, when she will pit her golfing wits against girls considerably older than her.

Next week, she will move on to Pannal, North Yorkshire, to compete in the prestigious North of England U16s Open Stroke Play Championships - an event that attracts many of Europe's finest young players.

"Kelly is in a rich vein of form," said her proud father, Paul.

"Since winning the English Girls' title, she's brought her handicap down to 6.7, and she looks well on course to get it down to five, which was her goal for this year."

Kelly, formerly of Dunscar but now playing out of Manchester Golf Club, beat Raphaela Dyer, from Hayling, 3 and 1 in the final of the national event, which was played in torrential rain at Harrogate.

But she played her best golf of the tournament in the semi-final, when she won a tight contest against Katie Thompson, from Corhampton, eventually beating the Hampshire four-handicapper two-up.

"Both girls were really pumped up and played phenomenal golf in front of a huge crowd," Paul said.

"They were halving holes with birdies and it was nip-and-tuck until the last hole, when Kelly had a 195-yard shot to the flag and got it to within two feet of the cup."

Kelly, a Canon Slade High School pupil, has been playing golf since she was five.

Coached by Gareth Benson, she dominated the county scene last year, winning the Lancashire Rose Bowl and the Lancashire U12s Championship, and won representative honours for the county's U18s. "Gareth's taken Kelly from a 43 handicap to under seven," Paul added. "He's a very proud coach at the moment."