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Amateur star a budding master

Oliver Goss outside his local Royal Fremantle Golf Club after winning the 2012 WA Open. Picture: Supplied

Oliver Goss has come a long way since swinging a cut-down sand wedge in the backyard as a toddler.

His father Darren, also a keen golfer, fashioned the club for his son after the family dog chewed the youngster's plastic set.

When the fresh-faced West Aussie became the first Australian to win the Silver Cup as the best-placed amateur at the US Masters last weekend, his parents beamed with pride.

Paula and Darren Goss travelled from their Coogee home to join their son at his first US Masters, where the golfing prodigy celebrated his 20th birthday.

His mother Paula caddied for her son in the par-three contest leading up to the Masters.

She said the experience, which she shared with Goss' American girlfriend Jessie Campbell, took her back to earlier days.

"It brought back memories of when I caddied for a much younger Oliver at junior events, with the difference being that his legs were much shorter then and I could keep up with him on the fairways - and the thousands of people watching," she said.

Goss was surrounded by family and friends when he achieved what no Australian had done.

He was handed the cup on his birthday, Sunday, April 13.

Speaking to media afterwards, he indicated his ambition was to turn professional but he could not say when that would be.

He is part-way through a golf scholarship at the University of Tennessee, where he studies kinesiology - the study of human movement.

Goss' love for sport stems back to his formative years, when he played football, practised martial arts, rode BMX and, above all, played golf.

He was born in England and moved to WA with his family aged five and soon played his first proper game of golf.

"He joined the cadet program at Royal Fremantle Golf Club when he was six and has been playing ever since," Mrs Goss said. "His first full 18 holes of golf was played at Kennedy Bay in Port Kennedy."

Goss was selected to play State golf as a teenager and at age 15 he joined the national squad.

Though his success is a reflection of his own hard work, his family did all they could to get him where he is.

"We would make sure he was entered into the relevant golf competitions and took him to the events," Mrs Goss said.

"Either Darren or myself caddied for him until he reached the time when he preferred to do it himself."

Goss and his father plan to play a round of golf before his parents return to WA this month.