Bermuda’s newest and youngest full-time professional golfer will follow in Michael Sims’ footsteps this week when he makes his debut on the Canadian PGA Tour.

Twenty three year-old Eric West has been busy for the last few months playing on some of America’s smaller pro tours as well as making some radical adjustments to his swing in preparation for the $100,000 San Jose International Open which gets underway tomorrow in California.

West was three years into a college career at UC Berkeley when he became disillusioned with their golf programme, fell out with an unsympathetic college coach and decided to head off instead into the cut-throat world of professional golf.

The Florida-based Bermudian has just started working with Brian Mogg — coach of many PGA Tour players including Englishman Justin Rose — and he knows full well that the road ahead will be a long and arduous one.

“There’s going to be a lot of hard work, I know that much,” he said yesterday en route to California.

“I was talking to Justin Rose just the other day about his early career and it turns out that he missed the first 30 cuts as a professional before he started making progress. That shows you how tough it can be sometimes when you’re first starting out.

“I’ve been working with Brian Mogg recently who has made some pretty severe changes to my swing. I worked on it for six hours or so yesterday and hopefully by the time the tournament gets underway I’ll feel a little more comfortable with things.

“I feel like I’ve been playing pretty well lately. I’ve played a few Hooters Tour tournaments and shot a 68 on Tuesday in a Florida Moonlight event.

“Most of my scores have been between the 71-76 range which has been a little frustrating because I keep finding myself around the one-under mark and not being able to get lower.

“I know that will come with experience though. Really what this year is all about is my overall development as a golfer. I’d like to make a few cuts and shoot some good scores but as long as I feel my game is improving at a decent rate then I’ll be happy.”

West earned his Canadian Tour card last year at Q-School in Ontario when, at the Royal Ashburn Golf Club, he overcame atrocious weather to finish in 20th place overall.