Bryce Baringer shoots first-place 69 in Mass. Amateur golf qualifier

That support system extends back home to Michigan, where he flew for Father’s Day weekend to surprise his dad.

“I actually flew home Saturday night, surprised him and played in a father-son golf tournament with him on Sunday,” Baringer shared.

“He was pumped for me, and obviously it’s cool for us because I know how important golf is to him. Just to be able to make him proud, not just on the football field, but in a sport he so deeply cares about was cool for me.”

It was Baringer’s dad, Bruce, who first put a golf club in his hand when he was four years old.

“My dad’s been a golfer ever since he was a teenager. He was actually going to play college golf at the University of Florida but his father got ill. He played at a community college outside Detroit and just around Michigan, so he put a club in my hand when I was a really young kid and I fell in love with it more and more as I grew up.”

That passion for golf grew in tandem with his love for football and presented a difficult decision for Baringer to make by the time his senior year of high school rolled around.

His father would have been thrilled either way, and while the punter ultimately chose to pursue college football, he never walked away from golf.

“I love the decision I made,” Baringer said. “Golf is still important to me. I relate golf to football and football to golf so much.”

That much is true for a specialist.

“Punting seems so monotonous, but if you look around the league, there’s so many ways to punt. Same thing with the way people golf. You have your own swing in football and golf. At the same time, I hit different types of punts depending on the situation we’re in. It’s the same thing in golf when you’re trying to hit certain types of shots at certain distances. It’s about your touch. It’s very relatable in the way both require you to intentionally understand what you want it all to look like. You have to visualize.”