On course for success
30 Sep 08
James practices his swing!
Did you watch Sunday's Xtra Factor? If you did, you would have caught a glimpse of James Williams, who made it through bootcamp and into the Judges' Houses stage of the competition.
Until superstardom arrives, 26 year-old James works in clubs and has regular gigs in old folk's homes around Pontypridd. He smiled, "The grannies appreciate me, and they like the same music I do - swing. I'm already booked to do a gig for a lady. She's going to be 100."
Not a bad life - but until recently, James was doing something entirely different - jetting around the globe as professional golf pro!
James' ambition to be the next Tiger Woods ended, however, when it became too expensive to continue in the sport. And after racking up big debts, he came back to Wales to work on a new dream.
He told us, "I travelled all over the world trying to play in golf tournaments".
"I've been there but I haven't broken through. There is so much money to be made in golf but the percentage of people who make it is very low".
"There is a lot of outlay and you have to sacrifice a lot. You might be in Kenya one meet then in South Africa, then in Europe the next".
And thinking of the life he's left behind, he shrugs, "I've been working on golf ten hours a day for the last ten years. It hasn't paid off".
"I had a year of ups and downs, and last winter, there were more downs, to be honest. I knew I wasn't ready mentally".
So James decided to take a break from sport. "It was just until I got my mental state of mind back. But in the meantime, unfortunately, I fell in love with something else. Singing".
"I soon realised that if I'd put the same effort into my golf as I do to my singing I might have been somewhere by now."
Whatever career James ends up with, he's sure to have his family backing him 100%.
And his whole clan - mum and dad, aunties and cousins came along to support him at auditions in Cardiff.
Said James, "The amount of support they gave me in my golfing career was amazing".
"Now I hope my singing will give me a new career. I want to make something of myself and work at something I love".
"Even though I had to give up golf for financial reasons, my family gave me so much patience and support."
"Now I want to pay them back".