KIRSTY Taylor will try to draw inspiration from another fine young Hampshire golfer when she strives to overcome the loss of her father.

Richard Taylor died recently after a long illness and Kirsty, Rookie of the Year on the European Ladies Tour last year, admitted: "Losing Dad will either make me more determined or reduce me to rubbish. I just don't know yet."

But the two-times Hampshire champion can draw strength from neighbour Justin Rose, who lost his own father last year but has kept battling out on the golf course and is beginning to regain the form he had before his dad died from leukaemia in September.

All who know 24-year-old Kirsty, from Overton near Basingstoke, know how close she was to her dad and how much of an emotional pillar he was to her.

Through his illness during the winter, Kirsty, understandably, hasn't found it easy focusing on her golf.

The Sandford Springs player couldn't repeat her 2002 success on the Asian Tour and when she played the first two European Tour events of the year in Australia, she missed the cuts in the ANZ Masters and the Australian Open.

Kirsty told me this week: "I withdrew from the Tenerife Open then the Italian Open last week, but I knew that sooner or later I would have to get back on to the golf course.

"I know I am going to have to be positive, but until I start playing again regularly I can't tell how it is going to affect me. I hadn't even practised before last week's Portuguese Open. And there's the additional worry about how Mum is coping back home while I'm away."

The former European under-21 champion, who has won both the Italian and Portuguese amateur championships, travelled everywhere with her father, who carried her bag and was very much her mentor when she was an amateur.

But when he became ill last year, Kirsty struck out on her own. It was a brave character-building move, but it worked and after a high finish on the Asian order of merit, she went on to take 24th place in the European rankings.

The result, which catapulted her 60 places up the money list, came last August when she finished a brilliant third in the Wales WPGA Championship and earned her biggest cheque by far, over 44,000 euros.

"It was a massive result for me," said Kirsty. "It proved I could compete on the European stage."

Now she has to put emotional turmoil behind her and re-invent herself on the golf course.