James Kelly is gearing up for his most important month of tournament golf since joining the paid ranks this year.

Three big events are on the horizon for the West Bradford player, starting with the PGA Assistants’ Championship next week at The London Golf Club.

Kelly was one of 12 qualifiers from the north region at Knaresborough after finishing joint sixth out of 130 last month.

He has also made it through to the final stages of the prestigious Leeds Cup at Cobble Hall on August 19 and the Rock PGA tournament at Matfenhall in Newcastle on August 25.

The former Northcliffe member admits he did not realise the significance of reaching the national stages of the assistants’ competition, which starts on Wednesday on the course which staged the European Open in June.

He said: “It’s a lot bigger event than I first imagined. I’m in my first year as an assistant pro so I’m still learning about various tournaments. Since I qualified for this one, I’ve been contacted by the PGA’s own website and by the sponsors.

“I’m really looking forward to it and I can remember from watching some of it on TV that it looks quite a tough and long course.”

Kelly shot a one-over par 73 on a wet day to qualify at Knaresborough, the same total as Cookridge Hall’s Paul O’Donnell and one more than Cleckheaton’s Chris Green.

He said: “Being honest, I had the best part of the day but I was disappointed with the way I finished.

“I bogeyed the par-five 17th which was one of the worst holes I could bogey but thankfully it didn’t matter.”

The 20-year-old has taken a different route into the professional game than former clubmate Rob Hillas, who joined the Europro Tour this season.

To become a fully-qualified professional, Kelly is taking a three-year diploma course run by Birmingham University in conjunction with the PGA.

Other than two weeks a year at PGA headquarters The Belfry, the course is done on a distance-learning basis.

So, in addition to his playing commitments, Kelly has been studying other aspects of being a club pro - business and retail, sports science, equipment and technology, coaching and working with children.

He has just passed his first year but admits he much prefers playing to studying.

“I am a bit lazy with regard to that side of things but it’s only for three years and it helps broaden my all-round knowledge of the game.”

Kelly decided against joining the Europro Tour because of the stiff competition and expense, though he has not ruled out trying to get his card at some stage.

He said: “I don’t think I’m good enough to be getting in the top five, which you need to do to get on the Challenge Tour.

“You also need between £10,000 and £12,000 in sponsorship. But I might still enter qualifying at some stage to try and get my card which means I can play on an ‘as and when’ basis. Getting the PGA qualification at least gives me something to fall back on.”

Kelly admits covering his expenses as a first-year assistant professional has not always been easy but has been given some assistance for next week.

He said: “Someone has paid for my accomodation costs and little things like that make a big difference.”