Ryan Fox invites 12-year-old golf prodigy Bayleigh Teepa-Tarau to ...

Twelve-year-old Bayleigh Teepa-Tarau’s inspirational golfing tale captured the hearts and attention of the sporting world, including New Zealand’s top golfer Ryan Fox.

Fox has produced a video congratulating Bayleigh on his Zespri AIMS Games success last month, when he won the nine-hole competition at the intermediate-age sports tournament.

That might sound pretty cool for any pre-teen passionate about golf, but it’s what Fox said next and Bayleigh’s back story that truly makes this story special.

Fox, ranked the 32nd best golfer on the planet, has invited Bayleigh to caddie for him at his charity event, Chasing the Fox, at Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club on December 14.

“You really are an inspiration to the New Zealand golfing public,” Fox said in the video. “In light of that, I’d personally like to invite you to help caddie for me at Chasing the Fox.”

Bayleigh, who has autism, took just three rounds of experience into the AIMS Games – a week-long intermediate-age sports tournament in Tauranga that featured almost 12,000 athletes from 373 schools around the country competing across 25 sporting codes – after remarkably only picking up a golf club for the first time, two weeks before the tournament.

Wearing basketball boots, with borrowed clubs and boasting the least experience in the field, Bayleigh blitzed the competition.

Proud koro with grandson Bayleigh Teepa-Tarau. (Jamie Troughton)

But the tournament win wasn’t even the biggest deal for Bayleigh’s whānau and long-time teacher aide Whetu Wiremu.

His whānau were blown away when Bayleigh, who hails from Tāneatua, a small village in the Bay of Plenty, confidently spoke to media after the game, something that would have been hard to imagine before, his father Hemi Tarau told Stuff last month.

“Winning a medal was just a bonus,” Wiremu said. “The real win was seeing his confidence mixing with other kids, and hearing him speak.”

As well as winning his own title, Bayleigh helped his Tāneatua School teammates Pedro Robinson and Lincoln Reneti to the team title as well. It was the first time the school had been able to raise the funds to send athletes to the AIMS Games in more than 10 years.

On their return, the trio was celebrated as heroes, with half of Tāneatua coming out for a special presentation at the school, that featured a rousing haka in the boys’ honour.

Last month, Wiremu said it would be a dream for them to meet some of the country’s top players.

Thanks to Fox’s invitation to carry his clubs, Bayleigh will now be mixing with top golfers and Kiwi celebrities at Chasing the Fox, the New Zealand’s golfer’s charity event that raises funds for I Am Hope.

I Am Hope is the youth and community-focused support group run by The Key to Life Charitable Trust, founded by Mike King.

The three-person Ambrose format puts the six celebrity teams up against Fox over six holes.

Last year, the tournament was set alight by former prime minister Sir John Key who delighted the crowd with a hole in one.

Players to contest this year’s tournament are yet to be announced but the six teams will be made up of rugby personalities, politicians, cricketers, Olympians, NZ Warriors and comedians.

“We really hope that you can make it this year,” Fox said in the video addressed to Bayleigh.

In his latest assignment, Fox tees off in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the historic Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland, on the latest stop on the DP World Tour, on Thursday night (NZT).

Bayleigh Teepa-Tarau assesses his options at Mount Maunganui Golf Club on his way to a remarkable win in the Zespri AIMS Games nine-hole golf tournament. (Jamie Troughton)

Bayleigh was playing with borrowed clubs at the AIMS Games, but since then, local business Waiotahi Contractors, has sponsored him a set of his own.

Golf New Zealand has also presented the Tāneatua School pupils with golfing gear to support their sporting journey.

-Stuff