Nepal golf star is tipped to become the country's first female professional player - but only if she gets a passport to leave the country 

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A young Nepal golf star has been tipped to become the country's first female professional player, but there's one thing standing in her way. 

Pratima Sherpa grew up in a small hut behind the third hole of the Royal Nepal Golf Course.

The 18-year-old golfer has qualified twice for the Faldo Series China championship - an amateur tournament series for young players which helped launch the careers of men's world number two Rory McIlroy and Tseng Ya-Ni, the former top-ranked woman.

But Sherpa has been unable to compete internationally so far because she doesn't have a passport to leave the country.

Pratima Sherpa, a young Nepal golf star, has been tipped to become the country's first female professional player, but there's one thing standing in her way

The 18-year-old golfer is unable to compete internationally so far because she doesn't have a passport to leave the country

Sherpa (center) is the daughter of laborers who work on the nine-hole golf course. In Nepal, citizenship is passed from father to child, and her father Pasang Tsering Sherpa (left), who thinks he's about 56, doesn't have a birth certificate

Sherpa is the daughter of laborers who work on the nine-hole golf course, which lies at the end of the runway of Kathmandu's international airport. 

In Nepal, citizenship is passed from father to child, and Sherpa's father, Pasang Tsering Sherpa, who thinks he's about 56, doesn't have a birth certificate. 

Her supporters have been lobbying the government to get her a passport and are confident they are on the brink of overcoming the country's notorious bureaucracy.

One member of the Royal Nepal Golf Club, a US citizen, even offered to adopt Sherpa to help her get an American passport, but she politely declined.

'I didn't want to leave my ageing parents... I felt things would eventually work out,' she says glancing over at her modest home where her mother is tending to the goats. 'I want to (play) for my own country.'

Golf is a sport usually associated with privilege, while Nepal is a country better known for its jagged Himalayan peaks than smooth golf greens. 

But those who have watched Sherpa play say she has what it takes to compete and win internationally, and make it to the hallowed US-based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour.

'In two to three years if she can go out of the country she has the opportunity to reach the Europe Tour, America,' said Tashi Ghale, general secretary of the Nepal Golf Association.

Her supporters have been lobbying the government to get her a passport and are confident they are on the brink of overcoming the country's notorious bureaucracy

Those who have watched Sherpa play say she has what it takes to compete and win internationally, and make it to the hallowed US-based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour

'Hopefully she will be the first Nepalese lady to compete with the LGPA.'

Sherpa was raised in a hut shared with lawn mowers, maintenance equipment and a few goats, and first started playing with a stick, copying the golfers she saw around her on the course.

The small hut she still shares with her parents is crowded with more than 30 trophies from tournament victories in Nepal. 

'I would play with kids of other workers. We used to watch people play golf and mimic them with wooden sticks. We would ask for balls and hit them,' Sherpa told AFP.

At the age of 11, coach Sachin Prasad Bhattarai spotted her during a juniors program run by the club.

Recognizing what he describes as a natural talent, Bhattarai offered to start coaching her for free and persuaded a club member to give Sherpa an old set of clubs.

At the age of 11, coach Sachin Prasad Bhattarai spotted her during a juniors program run by the club. He offered to start coaching her for free and persuaded a club member to give her an old set of clubs. Sherpa is pictured with him holding prizes after winning a competition

Sherpa is now a daily sight on the course. She practices under the watchful eye of Bhattarai every morning for two hours before taking the bus to school. Sherpa is pictured playing with her goats 

'She strikes with her feel. She can do it. Not many people have that in golf,' said Bhattarai.

'People have technique, and we guarantee that a person with a good golf swing will hit well... but not everyone has the art. She has that art.'

Her parents were initially reluctant to let her play, thinking she'd be out of place as a girl and from a humble background.

'Only rich people's kids would come to play so I didn't want to send her. Her studies would suffer,' said her father Pasang Tsering Sherpa, who met Pratima's mother working at the golf course.

Sherpa is now a daily sight on the course, though her routine was briefly interrupted when it was turned into a refugee camp after an earthquake devastated swathes of Nepal in April 2015.

She practices under the watchful eye of Bhattarai every morning for two hours before taking the bus to school.

'If I am successful, I want to return to where I started learning and help others like me who can't take up this sport because it is expensive,' she added.