Winning golf tournaments as a middle school student

The Burrs awoke to a noise one morning three years ago.

It was still dark outside when Ryan Burr’s wife woke him, telling him she thought someone had broken into the house.

When Ryan went to the kitchen to see what was happening, he found his 9-year-old son Caden putting on the kitchen floor.

It was the beginning of Caden’s love for the game of golf.

The family went out to Sports Authority to buy Caden, who is now 12, a set of clubs for $24. It was Caden’s first time golfing.

The Burrs moved to Windermere three years ago when Ryan was hired by the Golf Channel in Orlando. He is an anchor on the news program Golf Central, as well as the host on Live From programming, which travels to major golf events and broadcasts live.

Before moving to Windermere, Ryan worked for ESPN in Connecticut.

“I’d always really loved the game of golf, but living in Connecticut, there’s winter and whatnot, so you don’t play a whole lot of golf up there,” Ryan said.

Ryan’s new job at the Golf Channel, coupled with the fact that their neighborhood, Keene’s Pointe, has a golf course, may have kick-started Caden’s interest.

“He just completely fell in love with the game,” Ryan said.

The Burrs discovered that the U.S. Kids Golf Tour was in Orlando, and they signed Caden up for a match at Disney. Caden

showed up with his $24 set of clubs and was surrounded by kids with top-quality gear. He felt intimidated at first.

“I think it was funny because the first time when I got there, I didn’t know anything about 6-Iron, 8-Iron,” Caden said. “I looked at it, and people were having 14 clubs, and I think I had like six or five at the time.”

But then he won.

“It was funny because I didn’t know what to do,” Caden said. “Sign people’s score card, do all that.”

He won his next match, too. Caden, who is coached by professional instructor Raegan Earney, is now a sixth-grade student at Holy Family Catholic School, and golfing is an even greater passion for him now. He got a full set of 14 clubs and actively competes in the U.S. Kids Golf Tour.

He plays a variety of other sports, but he’s discovered he needed to narrow his focus to golf.

“I just decided that if I was going to be good at something, it was going to be golf,” Caden said.

Before getting involved in golf, he considered baseball and soccer to be his main sports. He played for the Florida Rush Soccer Club. He gave the soccer club up for golf, but he is still able to play on the soccer team at Holy Family Catholic School. He plays basketball for the school, as well.

But he spends most of his time on golf. His schedule varies from day to day, but usually he gets home from school at 3:30 p.m. Some days he hits golf balls until 5 or 6, and then he chips and putts from 6 to 7.

“He practices as much in a day as I practice in a year,” Ryan said.

Caden is looking forward to the spring season of the U.S. Kids Golf Tour. At the end of the season, he hopes to win “Player of the Year” at the Tour Championship. He has not won that title because he missed tournaments because of vacation. This season, he will play in every tournament, with his eye on “Player of the Year.”

He is strongly considering competing in the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour, a higher-level tournament, after this season.

Contact Jennifer Nesslar at [email protected].