A FORMER Tenby resident is enjoying life abroad after achieving major success in his early golf career.

Ryan Townsend, who was born in Haverfordwest in 1998, lived in Penally for eight years, and attended the local school there for five of them, before he and is family moved to Fuerteventura.

After moving to the Canaries, he took up golf after his older brother Alan took him round the local course, and he enjoyed it so much he subsequently asked for golf lessons.

And after just two of those lessons, he entered a tournament in Tenerife, and has since played regularly in tournaments in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

Furthermore, the 16-year-old has just won the Youth Canarian Championship for the third consecutive year, his fourth in total.

Overall, Ryan has won more than 50 tournaments in various categories, with more than half of those being adult tournaments - and after just five years of playing has a handicap of 2.5.

He has also represented Fuerteventura as part of the Canarian international squad.

Ryan has just finished school and now harbours ambitions of becoming a scratch golfer, turning pro, and representing Wales.

He and his family are currently looking for golf colleges in Wales where he can study and practice golf on a full time basis and are looking for sponsors to help him achieve this, and enter tournaments around Europe.

His father David and brother Alan still live in Pembrokeshire, and Ryan regularly travels back to visit them.

Anyone interested in sponsoring Ryan can contact him through tlesley90@yahoo.com.