Some kids cling to a blanket or crave the comfort of a plush toy. When Lincoln Lewis leaves home, his gear always includes a golf club.
"He would draw a crowd at two years old at the park," Megan Lewis said. "People would be filming him, and he would just hit ball after ball."
His parents weren't avid golfers, so it came as a surprise when, at 20 months old, he snubbed all other toys for a blue plastic Little Tikes putter.
"You could offer him anything else, and he wants to go pick up a golf club and swing it and hit a ball," said his mother, Megan Lewis. "We had everything. He had a hockey stick, baseball, football, basketball. Any type of ball or sport, but he kept going back to golf."
A video shows the tot, wearing only a diaper, sending a golf ball rocketing over a small SUV. Again and again, he wanted to hit the ball. Set up. Soar. Repeat.
When the strength of his swing bested the durability of the plastic club, his parents bought him a sturdier toy. Then, when he was 3, his grandfather bought a real golf club and had it cut down to fit Lincoln's frame. The family wasn't aiming to cultivate the next Tiger Woods. They were simply responding to Lincoln's obvious passion.
"You can't force a 2-, 3-, 4- or 5-year-old to do anything they don't want to do," his mother said. Lincoln's father, Aaron Lewis, chimed in. "This was all driven by him," he said.
When Lincoln's obsession didn't wane, his parents hired a golf instructor to work with him. Wes Francis started by trying to correct Lincoln's grip.
"He has a unique grip – a reverse grip," Francis said. "I tried to change it, and he kept going back to it." The unconventional hold didn't seem to diminish Lincoln's skill, so Francis focused on tweaking his short game instead.
"Golf is all about chipping, pitching, and putting," Francis said. "He could be number one in the world next year." At least among his age group.
Four days before the first day of class at Puster Elementary School in August, Lincoln, who already had more than two dozen golf tournaments under his 19-inch belt, tied for ninth place among the best 6-year-old golfers in the world. He was still five at the time.
The kindergartner turned six on Sept. 24 and has already qualified to compete again in the U.S. Kids World Golf Championship next August.
"He hits the ball over 120 yards," his golf instructor said. "He's tiny, but he can generate a lot of speed."
You might think that adhering to the strict rules of the game and practicing with an instructor would take some of the joy out of playing.
Think again.
After a few minutes of sitting still for an interview, Lincoln ran off to pick up a club. His mom talked a little louder to be heard over the constant whack of a ball hitting the wall in another room.
On Aug. 20, when the thermometer was hovering near 110, Lincoln and his dad were teeing up on a nearby course – just for the fun of it. "He's been just bugging me for two weeks since we got back from Pinehurst," Aaron Lewis said, referring to the world championship tournament. "He was like, 'I really want to go play. I really want to go play.'
"I kept saying, 'Lincoln, it's too hot out. I can't do it.' And then yesterday, I said, 'OK,' just so he could scratch that itch," he said. As long as he's enjoying it, Lincoln's parents said they'll keep encouraging him to play, even if it means they all have to endure extreme heat or cold.
"That's definitely my favorite part of the week," his dad said. "The two of us can just go out for a couple of hours and spend some time together. That's our bonding experience. "I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have that," he said. Megan Lewis interrupted. "It would be something else." Aaron Lewis agreed: "It would be something else. We'd find something else that he could get into."
To Lincoln, it's all just routine. He talks about golf with an eager smile, but his early successes don't seem as important as the kinds of things that fascinate most 6-year-olds, like hitting the ball into a sand trap. "I like when the sand goes up in the air," he said with a giggle. "It kind of looks like a big divot." He takes a strong swing to clear the bunker and then purposely putts the ball back into the sand.
Set up. Soar. Repeat.
