NICOLA FORD faces an uphill struggle to make an impact at the Daily Telegraph/Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Junior golf championships at Sun City after yesterday's second round was cancelled due to bad weather.

The 17-year-old from Clayton-le-Moors was 10 strokes behind leader Steph Evans after the first day on the Gary Player course.

She had shot a 79 and was in fifth place behind some of the best young British female golfers, such as Sophie Walker, who was in joint third after a 76.

Ford could have made up ground had the second round gone ahead as scheduled on the Lost City Course yesterday but this morning, with just one more round to play, her chances of catching the leaders had diminished severely.

The teenager, who plays off a handicap of five - many more than some of the other girls - is just happy to be there after qualifying in second place out of thousands of entrants.

She has dreamed of playing at Sun City since she saw the course on TV a decade ago.

And she won the chance when she shot an incredible one-under-par 73 at the Southport and Ainsdale qualifier in September.

She said: "I am just going to go and play the best I can.

"I was a bit nervous at first but then I got more confident.

"Most of the girls have lower handicaps than me and there are a lot of big names here."