HOPKINTON – eat. Golf. Sleep.
This has been the case with Logan Barber since he received his first set of golf clubs at the age of three.
“Eat, play golf, sleep,” said Barber. “That’s it.”
Barber is currently the junior captain on the Millis High golf team.
Last season he was named second captain and finished third in the Tri-Valley League with a batting average of 36.
This is even a matter of course for most courses.
“He basically carries our team every game,” said Millis senior Colin Christie. “He’s ten times better than everyone else on our team.”
Before Wednesday’s game against Hopkinton, the season average for the reigning Daily News All-Star was 34.3. Barber has reduced his current handicap to 0.2, which means he’s almost a scratch golfer.
A brand that all golfers dream of.
“He always gets a place or two,” said Millis golf coach Lance Benham. “If I get a golfer like that, I can’t really do much with it.”
A picture is worth a thousand words
Barber’s first golf memory comes from attending Easter brunch with his grandfather at the International Golf Club.
The then two-year-old barber was allowed to dare a few strokes with plastic golf clubs on the ninth green of the picturesque course in Bolton.
Almost eight months later, the Millis youngster received his first real set of clubs. There’s even a photo of Barber pulling the putter out of his pocket, which he keeps as the home screen on his phone.
“I love this picture,” said Barber, 16.
“It’s one of my favorite photos because it was so fluffy when he opened it,” said his father, Mark.
Since then, Barber has played a lot of golf – especially with his father. The two connect on the links as often as they can.
“For us it’s golf and that’s something of a catch. It’s wonderful, “said Mark, a 1993 Natick High graduate.” It doesn’t get any better for me.
“It was fun having someone to grow up with,” said Barber.
Over the years, the father-son duo developed quite a competitive pressure – on and off the pitch. Barber recalls the first time he hit his father in golf when he was 13.
“I never let him win what he did, don’t get me wrong,” said Mark. “But we just tried to have fun, but also to stay competitive.”
On April 4, Barber and his father found themselves in a tense putting competition at their home. A small lump sum of $ 10 was at stake.
“It has nothing to do with the money,” Mark told his son.
“This is the biggest putt of your life,” Barber barked back.
“A D. All day,” Mark said before sinking the shot on a putting mat Barber bought him for his birthday.
Mark then posted the video of him hitting the putt – and banter back and forth with Barber – on his Instagram page.
“That’s exactly what it’s about,” said Barber. “The competition.”
When Barber was 12, Mark passed his golf instructor responsibilities to TJ Ryan, who was a former Assistant Professional at The International.
In a class with Ryan, Barber played a game called 21 that forces a golfer to work on chip strokes around the green. To make the game a little more interesting, while putting some pressure on Barber, Ryan raised the stakes.
“I said, ‘I have some brand new gloves and if you’re really okay I’ll give them to you,'” Ryan recalled.
Continue to play.
The competition went down to the last three holes and Barber had to hit twice to secure the gloves. After missing the first chip, he pocketed the last two.
“I never thought he would, to be honest,” said Ryan. “I only offered because I thought he had no chance. He took off my last gloves. It was a pretty cool moment.
“That’s when I realized he was going to be a superstar.”
Bright future ahead on links
Barber finds himself on a golf course or driving range seven days a week. He spends nearly 30 hours a week golfing.
“It all depends on work and school,” he said.
He even has an Instagram account dedicated to his golf exploits. Barber assumed that his followers didn’t want to see golf posts every day on his personal Instagram page.
So he created the handle of @ loganbarbergolf_2023. His biography is: I like to hit a small white ball with a stick.
“It kind of exploded and now, on some of the classes I take, people recognize me and it’s really cool,” said Barber.
For the past several years, Barber’s has recruited people for the Millis High golf team.
The attraction of watching or playing with the talented golfer brought 22 people to practice training this fall. That’s a program high for the numbers during Benham’s tenure with the Mohawks.
Read:Logan Barber is a Daily News All-Star for Golf
“He’s been recruiting people who would probably have played soccer or football,” said Benham, “and he’s really improved the overall gameplay of the team.”
That’s Logan Barber to a T. He’s competitive. He likes to win. He has a driving ambition. Barber credits his father for helping him develop these traits.
And with two years left in high school, Barber hopes to hone his competitive juices and keep building his game.
“Right now (my goals are) to become a plus handicap and in the future I would like to play college golf,” said Barber. “That was always the main goal and that’s what I worked for.”
“He’s just a good person,” said his father.
“He’s just a really hardworking kid,” said Ryan. “He has a lot of talent and has a bright future ahead of him.”
Tommy Cassell is the lead multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tc[email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ tommycassell44.