Little over four years ago Jake Davies "hated golf", but now the Canberra product is getting ready to tee off at the NSW Open championships.
Davies won the Country Championships by two shots after a thrilling finish at Goulburn Golf Club to book a spot in the leading amateur event.
The Gungahlin Lakes member has only been playing golf for about four years, meaning he is still relatively new to the game compared to the people he plays against.
His parents played golf but Davies always preferred baseball bats over golf clubs, but a move to the United States didn't make him favour America's favourite pastime any more.
In fact things started to work the other way when he was invited to his father's Air Force work golf days.
"I played baseball for nine years, I hated golf. I couldn't swing because it ruined my baseball swing," Davies said.
"We lived in Washington DC in the States for a while and tried it over there. Dad had a few golf events for work and he invited me along and I jumped in the cart and the bug bit.
"Then we moved back here to Canberra I joined [Gungahlin Lakes] as a junior, got a few lessons and found out I was kind of good at it."
Davies slowly found himself playing more golf than baseball and now the 20-year-old is playing off plus-three on the road towards the NSW Open at the Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club from November 16-19.
"It was difficult because I was quite good at baseball. It was a weird transition, I started playing golf and baseball was still my priority. Then all of a sudden I felt a shift," Davies said.
"Baseball just wasn't working out and I wasn't enjoying it as much, then I obviously played more and more golf.
"It was probably about a year after I first joined, baseball I'm just not enjoying it anymore competitively. I still love to go out and play, but golf, I could spend hours out here and not get bored of it."
