A YOUNG golfer is on par with Rory McIlroy after shooting her first hole in one and making history at the same time.

Jodie Bodimeade, aged ten, became the first girl to get a hole in one at the Rayleigh Club after making the impressive shot at the 110-yard 16th hole.

She made history the same week golfing superstar Rory McIlroy sunk his first professional hole in one at the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Jodie, who has been playing golf since she was four, discovered the sport after taking part in a free taster session at the club with a friend.

Her mum, Connie, 49, of Rawreth Lane, Rayleigh, said: “Her coach is Tony Blackburn and she plays twice a week depending on the weather. She’s the only girl in her group at the moment. It’s very boy-dominated.

“She doesn’t get it from us, we know nothing about golf.

“The hole is a Par 3 and she got it in one. She was very excited, but she didn’t see it go in because it was on the hill.

“She couldn’t wait to tell us.”

Jodie, a pupil at Plumberow Primary School, Hockley, also plays basketball, swims and runs cross country and, although Rory is one step ahead of Jodie having shot his first ever hole in one aged nine, her coach says she has great potential.

Golf pro Tony Blackburn said: “She is the first young girl to do it and she’s a nice little player.

“You never expect them to go in.

I expected her to get it on the green, but she did it and it’s up a hill and we couldn’t see, so some of the boys went to look and it was there sitting in the hole.”

The Rayleigh Club off Hullbridge Road, Rayleigh, is home to two 18-hole courses, including the championship standard South Course, so Jodie is getting a taste of what life could be like as a pro-golfer.

Connie added: “She would like to be a pro-golfer. Her sister is 12 and says she wants to be her caddy and go all around the world with her.

“We don’t know where it will go.

She’s been off injured with achilles tendonitis and she wasn’t sure whether she should go back, but she’s definitely back now.”