Bradford golfer Malcolm Elrick is ready to take on the world after conquering Europe.

In his first appearance in the Blind Golf European Championships, Elrick won the tournament and has now received an invitation to tread new ground across the Atlantic.

“I won the B2 European Championship in Italy last year and that led to me receiving a phone call to play in the Canadian Open and the American Open, and my aim this year is to go and win in Canada and America.”

Elrick competes in the B2 category of blind golfers, who are classified as those who cannot see any letter on a vision chart, as opposed to B1 category golfers, who are registered blind, and B3 category golfers, who can see only the largest letter on the chart.

He has experienced something of a meteoric rise in the sport of blind golf since first being introduced to it back in 1998.

“It was about 12 years ago. I attended a guide-dog open day and someone was doing blind golf and I fancied doing it myself. The action was the same – everything was the same, just apart from the seeing.”

It didn’t take long for Elrick to get into the winning habit, and soon he was progressing to play against sighted opponents.

“It was in 2005 that I really started to be successful and I became national champion, and did it again in 2007.

“I thought 'I really want to do more than that, I want to compete with sighted people', and I won the Captain’s Day at Horsforth Golf Club against 189 other golfers.”

Elrick says everyone at the Horsforth club have played their part in his success.

“I’m quite lucky really that Horsforth recognise blind golfers. The people at Horsforth have been great, they’ve given me huge support and I’ve got some very good friends there.

There’s no animosity that they have to guide me or help me out, they’re just really supportive.”

Elrick also pays credit to his guides, who can accompany the golfers around the course and can stand directly in the line of a shot to give advice.

“There’s no way I could have done it without my guides either. My wife was my guide when I won my first English title and my current guide, Michael Walton, who is also a member at Horsforth, helped me win the European Championship.”

Elrick says the confidence he has got from the sport has helped him to manage his disability.

He said: “I get huge satisfaction from the sport and I’ve realised I have the ability to cope with my disability.

“It gives you confidence to deal with other areas of life.

“When I’m on the course I don’t feel afraid, because I used to shake like mad on the tee when I played against sighted people because I used to imagine they were watching me and waiting for me to mess up!”

Now Elrick needs sponsorship to pay for flights to help his American dream become a reality. He can be contacted on 01274-561699.