CAK senior Bryson White was named the 2024 Boys Golf Player of the Year, presented by Brad Rose Golf.
BY DAVE LINK
Bryson White puts golf on the back burner in late fall and winter while playing basketball for Christian Academy of Knoxville.
He doesn’t put it too far on the back burner.
White, a Tennessee Tech golf signee and the 2024 5Star Preps Boys Golfer of the Year, will put basketball aside after this season when he begins sole focus on his golf career.
For now, he’s a starting guard for CAK’s basketball team, which takes a 13-1 record into the new year.
“It’s kind of hard to play (golf), so a lot of it’s during the week when I can,” White said Saturday morning before the team went to Kentucky. “Like before (basketball) practice, I’ll go hit balls or go to the range at Fairways and Greens.
“I usually go there and get some practice work in, and if it’s a good weekend where it’s warm, I’ll try to go play Saturday and Sunday if I’m not doing anything. It’s definitely harder to practice in the winter compared to other people who just play golf, so I just kind of have to go full tilt on golf when basketball is over.”
His turnaround from basketball into golf hasn’t proved too difficult.
As a junior, White was in contention for the Division II-A state golf championship — locked in a three-way tie after an opening-round 71 — before shooting 79 the second round and finishing tied for 13th.
Not to be deterred, White returned to the state tournament this fall, taking a one-stroke lead after one day and hoisting the championship trophy Oct. 8 at Sevierville Golf Club’s River Course.
“This year, I think I was a lot better mentally,” White said. “Obviously, I really wanted to win, but at the same time, it was kind of just go out there and have fun. I knew I had put in the work, and I’ve practiced more than anybody, I felt like. If I just had fun, whatever happens, happens.”
White, who shot 3-under 69 for the opening round, survived a double bogey on the 18th-and-final hole of the tournament for a 1-under 71, winning by one stroke over Battle Ground Academy’s Brady Ray (70-71–141).
White said No. 18 on the River Course is a difficult hole, and it turned “goofy” that day.
“You’ve got water left and the road right off the tee,” White said. “The guy I was competing with, before me, went right (out of bounds) in the road, and I guess it kind of made me think a little bit and I actually went left in the water.
“And then when I was on the 18th green, I wasn’t 100 percent (certain), actually, but I was pretty certain that I could 3 putt and I would still win, and that’s kind of what I did. Yeah, it was a goofy hole. I was a little nervous on the green, but it was just a goofy hole. It’s a hard tee shot.”
Bryson White prepares to strike an iron shot on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, at Three Ridges Golf Course in the first round of the 5Star Preps Masters presented by Brad Rose Golf Instruction. (Photos by Tanner Walker/5SP)
White, who became the fifth CAK player to win a state golf title, lives in Clinton and attended Clinton Middle School until his freshman year when he transferred to CAK.
Not until after his seventh-grade year did White get into golf. He joined the team at Clinton Middle School and golf enough to take it up competitively.
White played basketball and football at Clinton Middle; he was a quarterback during youth-league football, played cornerback in seventh grade at Clinton Middle, and moved to quarterback as an eighth grader.
Before his freshman year at CAK, White decided to drop football and continue golf – the two sports coincide during fall high school seasons – while staying with basketball in winter months.
“I’ve been playing basketball all my life,” White said. “I didn’t want to quit basketball, and it’s during the winter, so it’s a little easier because it’s harder to golf in the winter.
“That’s why I keep playing basketball, but I’d say freshman year is when I realized I kind of wanted to see how far I could go with golf. That’s when I started really taking it more serious and started playing more tournaments and started going to (golf instructor) Brad Rose.
White’s golf career flourished, enough so that his goal is to play at some level professionally after he’s finished with college.
He committed to Tennessee Tech this past July, in large part because of head coach Polk Brown, plus he knows a couple of players on the team.
“He’s a great guy, and it’s a great program,” White said. “They won their conference (Ohio Valley Conference) last year, and I know Drew Bolton (of Knox Central) and Hil Thomspon (of Christian Brothers). It just felt like the right place for me.”