Six-year-old golf prodigy lifts achiever trophy

MEET the next Pádraig Harrington. He’s just six years old, wears size one golf shoes and uses a bespoke club, but Cork schoolboy Zak Collins has a drive that leaves grown men eating his sand.

And yesterday, the Ballincollig golf prodigy lifted the Young Achiever 2010 trophy at the maternity & infant Awards in Dublin.

The annual event run by a parenting magazine crowns the country’s most inspiring citizens, from phenomenal parents to child heroes, and midwives with the most.

But the lad, who first picked up a toy golf club aged 3, was nonplussed by the Shelbourne Hotel bash, instead hoping to skive off to Dublin Zoo.

“He has a beautiful swing, rhythm and timing, whether it’s a drive, a little chip shot or a putt,” says David O’Sullivan, PGA pro at Lee Valley Golf and Country Club, which has flexed its age restriction to take on the “special talent”.

“It’s just so refreshing to see a six year-old kid stand up and play like that.”

His mother Stephanie and father Denis say they’re just as shocked by their son’s astonishing 150-yard drive.

“I’ve no idea where he gets it from,” adds mother-of-three Stephanie. “Denis plays golf every so often, but Zak already beats him!”

“When he was about three, we got him a set of plastic golf clubs to play with,” she recalls. “Even back then he was quite accurate, but we didn’t really think anything of it – sure everyone thinks their own children are the best.

“When the professionals see him play though, their mouths usually just fall open. He actually missed his first day of school playing golf at St Andrews in Scotland.”

“Pádraig Harrington had a little chat with him at the Irish Open and Zak was totally in awe,” says Stephanie. !

Benhaffaf twins Hassan and Hussein from Cork – born conjoined but successfully separated earlier this year – won a Special Merit Award for bravery.

Parents Angie and Azzedine picked up the a Special Merit Award for bravery on their behalf.

“This award means so much to us,” said Angie. “It’s like a bright light at the end of a very difficult year. It’s hard to imagine that this time last year it was thought that our two little boys wouldn’t survive birth, and yet here they are 11 months so full of the joys of life.”