AUBURN – Conor Drouin fires off one shot after another at the driving range. He begs his mom for the biggest bucket of balls. He would keep shooting until after dark if he were allowed.

The boy’s love of the game wouldn’t be remarkable but for his age. He’s only 3 and he’s already playing nine holes.

On a recent day, he checked his hands to make sure he was holding the club the way his grandpa showed him – not crisscrossed, not too far apart. Then he wiggled his hips just like the golf pros and let it rip.

“Wow! Did you see that, Ma? I smoked it, huh!” he shouted after driving the ball to a target at the 75-yard mark.

“You’re awesome,” said his mother, Brenda Frateschi-Drouin, as she plopped another ball onto the tee.

Frateschi-Drouin knows how much the boy loves golf, so she takes him to the range at least once a week. On weekends, he goes to the Litchfield Country Club with his grandfather.

The boy started golfing when he was 2. He used to hit balls into the lake by his family’s camp in Litchfield.

“He just picked up my clubs and started swinging,” said Tony Frateschi, the boy’s grandfather. “It was so natural for him.”

That was a year ago. These days, Conor has his own five-stick set that he used to insist on keeping in bed with him at night.

For a time, he wouldn’t leave home without golf balls in his pockets. He’d cry if he lost the golf balls at day care.

Although he has outgrown some of these habits, he’ll still sit in front of the TV all day to watch a tournament, his mother said.

On the weekends, his grandfather treats him to nine holes at the Meadow Country Club in Litchfield.

One morning, the club’s owner approached them to make sure they weren’t slowing others down. The owner was silenced after watching the boy drive a golf ball 100 yards down the fairway.