By Dakota Antelman, Contributing Writer
Westborough – Soon-to-be 7-year-old Triston Krumsiek got his first set of plastic golf clubs for his second birthday. In the five years since then, he has upgraded to metal clubs, begun playing on full-sized courses, and joined a competitive regional golf “tour.”
Learning the game of golf faster than many adults, Triston has impressed his parents and other golf mentors alike. While his parents said they do not want to push him to play a sport he does not want to play, Triston himself said he is excited about golf and the success he has had in his young golf career.
“As long as he’s having fun with it, we’re happy to just keep pushing him towards it,” Matt Krumsiek, Triston’s father, said. “We’re trying to alleviate all the pressures of ‘you must go here, you must take these lessons there.’”
After he began playing with his plastic clubs after his second birthday, Triston gradually switched to using metal clubs that his dad modified to fit him.
As he continued his interest in golf, his family took him to see professional golfers on the PGA tour when they competed in the Dell Technologies Championship in Norton, then known as the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Matt said Triston was a captive audience to that competition and others since – a notable fact, he said, given Triston’s age.
“To have a toddler who is 3, 4 or 5 years old sit for three to four hours at an event perfectly still, you can tell that he gravitates towards the sport and that it’s a passion for him,” Matt said.
Two years after he started playing, Triston’s parents took him to a full sized, par-three golf course for the first time for his 4th birthday. Since then, he has made frequent trips to the Framingham Country Club (FCC) where he and his family are members.
Triston has since refined his game with FCC’s Head Golf Professional Graham Cunningham, playing putting, chipping and driving games with Cunningham.
It was Cunningham who ultimately introduced Triston to his current tour with US Kids Golf. Triston has been golfing with US Kids Golf for much of the past year. He is, likewise, currently a member of the organization’s Boston Local Tour for boys under the age of 7.
Triston leads that tour with three tournament victories over three weekends in July including a 36 stroke performance on the par 36 course at Hillview Country Club in North Reading July 24.
On his tour, where Triston and his competitors often take anywhere from 45 to 60 strokes to complete a given course, a par performance is a major accomplishment. More so, that accomplishment followed another similarly exciting performance the day before, when Triston hit a hole-in-one on the golf course at Cyprian Keyes Country Club in Boylston.
“Probably 15 people witnessed his hole-in-one on the fourth hole,” Matt said. “So there was a good crowd cheering for him when he went down to get his ball.”
Excelling at his sport before many kids his age even begin participating in organized athletics, Triston said he is excited about his future in golf, noting that he wants to play competitively in high school.
In the short term, however, his family is excited for their son and eager to help him continue his golf career as long as he wants to do so.
“As long as there is golf around, he’ll certainly be stepping first in line to try and play no matter where the game or the match is,” Matt said. “Any time I say golf in the house he says ‘When are we going and how fast can we get there?’”