Hampton Roads high school freshman to compete in prestigious tournament on Golf Channel

Tyler Fink unfolded the hand towel from the pocket of his khakis and laid it flat on a Portsmouth putting green.

Turning around, the 15-year-old from Chesapeake aligned his heels with an edge of the towel and then paced in the opposite direction, counting out loud for five long and deliberate strides. Suddenly, he stopped. He pointed his toe at the grass, where his brother quickly sank a tee into the dirt next to Fink’s stark white Adidas.

The process — five steps, place a tee — was repeated five more times until Fink took out his club. Using the tees as markers, he putted a ball from each green position toward the towel.

The drill helps to better control ball speed, visualize the lines and pilot past putting greens’ varying degrees of slope. It exacts precision. A perfectly struck golf ball will come to a controlled, dead-center stop atop the hand towel.

“I missed one,” Fink said. “Let’s do it again.”

School had wrapped up about 45 minutes before on this surprisingly warm Wednesday in early March. On the green here at Elizabeth Manor Golf & Country Club, every move mattered. On April 5, Fink is set to compete in one of the most prestigious youth golf tournaments in the country: Drive, Chip and Putt.

The national finals will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel from Georgia’s Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament that week. It’s hallowed ground, Fink knows. He’ll need to be ready.

The freshman at Catholic High School in Virginia Beach credits his dad with introducing him to golf. He remembers well his first trip to the driving range at around 10 years old. He watched his dad swinging a driver. His old man looked so powerful doing it. And the boy wondered if someday, maybe, he’d be able to do the same. Practice began.

At first, he mainly just played around with his family, and he was OK. He entered a couple of youth tournaments for fun. When he scored high on a few leaderboards, it motivated him. Practice turned more serious. And, fairly quickly, he went from not-too-bad to better-than-average to better-than-most for his age. He started to consistently win matches and overall season championships in the U.S. Kids’ Hampton Roads tour and the Under Armour Junior Tour.

He’s competed at the state level in the Virginia State Golf Association and regionally in the Middle Atlantic PGA Junior Golf Tour and Drip Golf Tour. At the national level, he’s been a part of the American Junior Golf Association, the 2026 Scott Robertson Memorial Junior Golf Tournament and the 2026 Future Masters.

He plays golf every day, whether using the golf simulator in his family’s garage or with family or high school teammates at courses around Hampton Roads.

And while he slips into daydreams of PGA Tour hole-in-ones and life as a professional athlete, Fink’s true ambition is relatively humble. His ultimate goal is a spot on a college golf roster. His dream is a scholarship to Duke University.

And his “greatest achievement” to date, he said, is undoubtedly making the Drive, Chip and Putt finals. The tournament is funded by the Masters Tournament Foundation, the U.S. Golf Association and the PGA of America.

Most years, over 10,000 youth golfers participate in the tournament, starting with hundreds of local qualifiers at courses across the country. Top finishers advance through qualifying events to one of 10 regional qualifiers. In the end, there are only around 80 national finalists.

And Fink’s father said the tables have turned. Daniel Fink is now the one who watches — every time Tyler swings the club in pursuit of a dream.

“It’s probably the proudest thing you could ever, ever do as a dad,” he said.

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, [email protected]