Rising Cumbrian golfer Archie Davies is set to become the fourth Wales golfer to go to East Tennessee State University in the United States.

After he received the Amateur Golfer of the Year award at the 2018 Wales Golf Awards ceremony in the 2010 clubhouse at Ryder Cup venue Celtic Manor, Carlisle ace Davies revealed being dropped by Wales was the catalyst for last season’s success.

He is looking forward to a busy summer of golf and exams at Sedbergh School, followed by university in the States.

He joked: “I’m going to the University of East Tennessee, quite a few Welsh golfers have been there – Rhys Davies, Rhys Enoch and Rhys Pugh, so I need to change my name to Rhys!”

Davies was also the Wales Boys Order of Merit winner, led the stroke-play qualifiers in the Welsh Amateur Championship in Machynys after an opening 64, as well as representing Wales in the Boys and Men’s Home Internationals and GB & I Boys in the Jacques Leglise Trophy.

He admitted: “Not being picked by Wales was good for me.

"Some people take that negatively, wouldn’t practice as hard, but I think it’s just the way I am that I don’t really like failing so it pushed me harder. In the end, it was really cool.

“This Wales Golf award is awesome and shows how hard I’ve worked in the 2017/18 season.

“I really put in the hours and it’s great to get this award at the end of the year. This year I have A-Level exams as well, so I will be getting those out of the way before the season starts properly.

"Before that, I have the Euro Nations coming up next week and McEvoy the week after a heavy season and then going to America in August.

"I’m just looking for more of the same, keep working hard and keep going with what I’m doing to see what happens.”