Bird will form one third of the Central West Team that contests the NSW Country Championships, playing the junior division of the event which begins tomorrow.

Carrying over into Sunday, it will be the second year in a row Bird has contested the event but he will be hoping for a change of fortunes from 2008.

“It is a fairly big tournament,” the 17-year-old said.

“It’s run over two days down there at the Murumbidgee, there’s only three of us going for the juniors but I think they are sending a few more for the seniors. I played down at the same event last year and to be honest the Central West team didn’t do real well at all.

“I’ll definitely be out to do a bit better this time around.”

Joining Bird will be one of his team-mates from 2008, Mudgee’s Andrew Best with whom Bird has played plenty of golf over the last few years.

The final member of the team will be another Mudgee golfer Jac Delaney, who Bird has played with sporadically in recent times.

“It has just been this year that Jac has started playing Central West tournaments but I’ve played with and against him a couple of times,” he said.

In a refreshingly honest appraisal of his current form, Bird made no bones about what lies in front of him if he and his team are to do well this weekend - a big reversal in form.

“Mate to be honest I’m hitting them terrible at the moment,” he admitted.

“So I’m not real sure how to approach this weekend.

“A lot of people have said that because I’m growing it is affecting my swing-plane but I think that could be crap - I’m just not hitting them well at all. Hopefully I will find a bit of form for this tournament and we can have a pretty good result.”

Following the country titles in Canberra, Bird will turn his attention to the Bathurst Junior title in December.