WILTSHIRE Golf Union president Phil Hodges has spoken of his pride after seeing Jordan Smith continue to impress at the highest level of the professional game.

Fresh from his overall victory on the European Challenge Tour in 2016, Bowood’s Smith has shown no signs of stopping as he enjoys his debut campaign on the European Tour.

The Derry Hill 24-year-old started 2017 with a tied-third finish at the BMW SA Open, before following up that performance with a joint-39th finish in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship last weekend.

His finish in South Africa - at which he played alongside four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy in the final round - saw him ranked in the top 100 for the first time, moving up 20 places to 93rd.

Despite his more recent success, Hodges doesn’t think Smith’s ascendancy comes as too much of a shock, after watching the youngster throughout his youth.

“We are extremely proud of him. He’s been involved in the county for many years now and obviously he’s gone from strength to strength,” said Hodges of the former Walker Cup player and England international.

“He was part of the team which won the England County finals and since he has turned pro, he hasn’t really looked back.

“He’s not surprised anyone in the county. When we were in the county finals three years ago, all of the team were asked whose swing they would like and they all said Jordan Smith’s.

“What more can you say? We are all extremely proud of him. He’s aware of his roots in the amateur game as well.”

Hodges also believes the sport is booming in the county, with Wiltshire winning back-to-back English Boys’ County Championships this year.

“We are looking now to push more and more kids into golf,” he added.

“Hopefully we will see more success. We have an incredibly talented group of youngsters who are all supportive of each other.

“We try to look out for those talented youngsters and keep them interested in the game.

“We as a county are supporting junior golf as best as we can and the results are at the elite level, but I think we need to build any youngsters up, just to play the game.

“We want to see our courses full at the weekends. We are a small county in terms of golf, yet over the last five or 10 years we have outperformed our size.”