Josh Berry was just 11 years old when he got his first taste of where the game of golf could take him.
After victory at the Wee Wonders British Championships at St Andrews in 2015, the youngster from Doncaster jetted off to America the following summer to compete in the Junior World Championships at Pinehurst.
His recollections from the trip are scant – he was, after all, in Primary School at the time – but Berry need not worry. Fast forward seven and half years and the 18-year-old is already making new memories as the DP World Tour’s youngest card holder.
Having come through all three stages of Q-School to claim his Tour card in November last year, Berry has barely been afforded a moment’s rest, travelling to South Africa, Mauritius and the Middle East to compete in the first events of the new season.
He will make his first DP World Tour start of 2024 at this week’s Qatar Masters, but, even now, the extent of last year’s achievements is still yet to fully sink in.
“It’s been a whirlwind few months to put it lightly,” the teenager reflected, speaking exclusively to Golf Monthly.
“It was like a dream. I’d just had this huge moment of gaining my Tour card and securing my future and people were coming up to me and saying, ‘Do you want to start thinking about South Africa next week’.”
“I didn’t even have time to go back and properly celebrate with my family. Three days later, I was on a flight to Johannesburg but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Only Rory McIlroy, in 2008, earned a Tour card at a younger age, but Berry’s Q-School exploits almost came to a grinding halt at a sodden Donnington Grove in the first stage. “I felt like I’d spent all this money coming down to London only to get a bad draw and get shafted by the weather,” he joked.
A gutsy final round saw him progress before the teenager rose to the occasion at stage two, finishing second to qualify for the final stages at Infinitum in Spain. Six gruelling rounds awaited in a field full of experienced players.
“It was a lot to take in when you arrived and someone like Kiradech Aphibarnrat is just warming up next to you,” Berry recalled. “But that’s what I was there for - to see how my game stacked up against them and take in as much as I could from the week.”
As it turned out, his game more than stacked up. Ranked 560th in the men's World Golf Amateur Ranking at the start of the week, Berry - a product of England Golf's esteemed development programme - showed superb consistency with 71 the worst of his six rounds as he finished the week on 15-under to bag his card.
Getting a Tour card, though, is only half the battle. Such is the abundance of talent within the DP World Tour membership, the 18-year-old, owing to his low category exemption, has been unable to get a spot in the field for any of the year's first three events.
“At first it’s quite hard to take - you think you’ve got your card and all these opportunities but it’s not quite that simple,” he said. “But you have to accept it. I’ll get my opportunities like I have this week and now I have to let my golf do the talking.”
In the absence of DP World Tour starts Berry has had to look further afield. Having just missed out on last week’s Bahrain Championship, the Englishman travelled to South Africa to compete on the Challenge Tour in the SDC Open. A final-round 61 featuring ten birdies and one eagle was evidence enough to suggest that won’t be necessary for too much longer.
“The real strength of my game is off the tee and that’s something that I think can translate really well to these professional courses,” he explained. “On the amateur courses in England, I can’t hit the driver too much because it’s too firm or narrow or short so it will be nice to start playing some of these bigger championship courses and just let it rip.”
Despite all the excitement that will naturally come with a maiden year on Tour, Berry exudes a grounded persona. He baulks at the notion that he could recreate the success seen by 17-year-old darts phenom Luke Little but is also not shy about his ambitions for the rest of the year.
“I think it would definitely be nice to play the bigger Rolex Series events next year and be able to plan my schedule,” he ends. “But the main thing is gaining that experience and seeing different parts of the world. It’s about trying to become more well-rounded as a person and as a player.
“I want these experiences to propel me forward. Every time I play, I’m learning something about myself and improving. It’s an ongoing process but a journey I can’t wait to go on.”
