One Direction’s Niall Horan put his golf practice to the test as he took on the Totally Mega Putt Challenge at Wentworth Golf Club on Wednesday.

But the 22-year-old singer was beaten in the putting challenge by eight-year-old cancer survivor Rhys Kiernan, who has been playing the game for just one year.

Niall’s shots had an unfortunate habit of ending up stuck in the fake minature trees on the 100-foot putting course that the two tackled ahead of his appearance in BMW’s PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am in Virginia Water, Surrey.

He took the defeat well as he admitted he was “not very good at putting in general”.

He praised Rhys, from Luton, who was diagnosed with brain cancer at just four years old, and who came closest to potting the ball, even scoring a hole-in-one in practice.

Niall and Rhys, front left, take on the Totally Mega Putt Challenge (Yui Mok/PA)
Niall and Rhys, front left, take on the Totally Mega Putt Challenge (Yui Mok/PA)

“Rhys was good, he gave it a good whack, (it went) a lot further than me, ” he laughed.

Proceeds from the Pro-Am tournament and Niall’s Horan & Rose gala dinner and Pro-Am golf day which will take place on May 29 and 30 all support the work of Cancer Research UK Kids and Teens.

Rhys took part in a clinical trial funded by the charity to increase survival in children with glioma – brain tumours in the glial cells, which support nerve cells in the brain.

For more information, visit cruk.org/kidsandteens