By NANCY HILER
"My grandpa took me when I was little," Larkin said. "I just fell in love with it." His mother, Joann Larkin, said her father cut golf clubs down to her son's size and taught him how to swing at a driving range when he was a toddler. "He's always had a golf club in his hands," she said.
Today Adam, a sophomore at W.C. Mepham High School, competes against some of the top junior golfers in the nation. He has also played for the school's golf team since his advanced skill made him eligible when he was still a seventh-grader at Grand Avenue Middle School.
Adam has taken part in many high-level junior golf tournaments, but competition is not his concern. His own performance is. "What I like about it is it's an individual sport," he said. "You don't count on anyone else, just yourself."
Junior golfers win trophies or medals, not cash prizes. But Adam plays for the sport of it, not for the rewards. He has entered golf tournament fund-raisers and taught golf to children as community service work.
On Aug. 20, for the third straight year, Adam played in and won the Kids Golf For Kids Charities' Annual Junior Golf Charity Classic held on the Eisenhower Red Course, a challenging course in Eisenhower Park. The event benefited the Children's Medical Fund of New York, which supports programs for seriously ill children at Schneider Children's Hospital.
"Adam won the boys' 14-to-15 division with a score of 68 -- four under par," Brian Burstein, founder and CEO of the organization, said of this year's tournament. "Adam has raised more than any other player, with a total exceeding $2,100 over the past three years."
He goes above and beyond what is expected when collecting donations and in other ways, Burstein said. "Whenever we're carrying equipment or setting up our registration or awards ceremony tables," he said, "Adam's the player who will always ask if we need an extra hand."
A few weeks ago, Larkin was a semifinalist in match play at the 39th Metropolitan Golf Association/MetLife Boys' Championship, held at the Bedford Golf & Tennis Club in Bedford. Boys from throughout the tri-state area competed. Adam played a semifinal match against Michael Miller of Brewster, and their round was interrupted by a rainstorm, with play suspended for a half-hour.
"I was not prepared for that," Adam said, "It started pouring, and I was wearing just shorts and a shirt." The harsh conditions distracted him, he said, and he lost the match. Still, only three boys scored better than he did in the sudden-death elimination tournament.
"That's golf," his mother said. "You can't win everything."
Although he plays close to home most of the time, Larkin has hit the fairways as far away as the Southwest. "He represented New York state last summer in a tournament in Texas," his mother said. "I think he was the youngest one there, and he was a little intimidated, so he didn't do too well." She added, "You take it as a learning experience."
Adam plans to tee it up next at two upcoming All-Star Junior tournaments this fall. In late September, he is set to participate in a tournament at the Long Island National Golf Club in Riverhead. In October, he'll compete on the Bethpage Red Course in Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, a sister course to Bethpage's Black Course, where the U.S. Open was held in 2002 and will return in 2009.
Asked if he would like to become a professional golfer one day, Adam said, "Sure, I'd like to, but if that doesn't happen, I'd like to teach golf." He already has teaching experience already, having helped instruct youngsters taking part in the First Tee program at Eisenhower Park.
What advice does he give to young beginners? "Don't expect to be good at it the first time out," Adam said. "It's a lot of hard work and practice." He added, "Keep at it and have fun."
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