EIGHT-year-old Taio-Blake-Burkitt spent his May half-term competing in a major golf tournament and is next travelling across the Atlantic to compete in a junior competition in America.

Raglan Golf Club memberTaio, a student at Haberdashers Monmouth School, travelled to Scotland last month for the US Kids European Championships at Longniddry golf course. , where he came third out of 39 golfers.

And he’ll be a taking a trip to San Diego in America on July 2 for the Uswing world championships, plus Orlando for the Under Armour world championships on August 12-18 for the US kids world championship.

The Uswing kids world championship has now grown to 1,250 participants from 56 countries and 42 states, and is the largest international event in the world, unique for its international representation and culture diversity.

The final destination on his travel this summer is finishing at Pinehurst in the US kids world championship.

Emma Burkitt, Taio’s mum said: “Taio played so well, but on day one the two birdie putts didn’t drop for him.

“He went back to the golf course after lunch on day two and practised his putting.

“It all came together on day three, when he had four birdies and shot an impressive four under par, 32, the lowest score of the tournament.

“The comeback was incredible; he was in 11th place after day 2 and climbed the leaderboard to take third place.

“Day one he shot 38 and day 2 he shot 39, and we’re so proud of him.”

Taio-Blake started playing golf at just three years old at Tee-Rex adventure golf in Cardiff, participating in group sessions following on to having individual lessons with Lee Bromley, who runs the US children’s local tour in Wales.

Tee-rex golf is 18-hole crazy golf and features obstacles like a volcano waterfall, a cave and a raft.

Taio played in his first US children’s local tour in 2020 where he won his first tournament at just four.

He was then introduced to Natasha Gobey, a PGA golf coach at Bryn Meadows golf course who has coached Taio since, helping improve his game to compete at the highest level.

Taio has competed all over the world since starting golf and has qualified for top world competitions, including the US children’s world championships at Pinehurst, in North Carolina in the US.

He has won many times locally and also retained the U7 British US children’s title in 2024 for the second season as a six-year old.

The young golfer will be leaving to go to America at the start of July and will be in San Diego for a month before heading to North Carolina for the next championship.

When Taio plays golf at his local club Raglan Golf, he competes in friendly games against his dad.