Local golf: Benfield breaks through in Rowan Amateur

Published 12:05 am Tuesday, July 18, 2023

By Post Sports

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — He played 38 tense holes on a boiling Sunday and overcame two of the best local golfers as well as the wrath of Mother Nature.

Shane Benfield’s first victory in a major local tournament was sweaty — he said he was soaked five minutes after he walked out the door — but it was well worth the long wait. He is the 2023 Horace Billings Rowan Amateur Champion after doing it the hard way at Corbin Hills, recording two sudden-death victories on a single afternoon.

The eighth-seeded Benfield topped fifth-seeded Derek Lipe in the semifinals on the 19th hole.

For an encore, he outlasted second-seeded Keith Dorsett on the first extra hole in the championship match.

“This is something I’ve been chasing a very long time and a win I’m going to cherish forever,” the bearded Benfield said. “I’ve been in a lot of finals. I’ve had a lot of close calls. I was runner-up in the Rowan Amateur in 2011 to Ronnie Eidson, and that’s one of my favorite memories in golf. Ronnie has passed now, but what a great player and great guy he was and we really duked it out that day.”

Benfield has been on the edge of a breakthrough many times, and not just in the Rowan Amateur. He’s been in pressure-packed Labor Day Four-Ball matches. He’s been part of the runner-up team in the Grady B. McCanless Four-Ball more times than he can count.

But now he owns a very nice trophy and a very nice individual victory.

Nick Lyerly, who turned pro this year, had won six Rowan Amateurs, including the last five in a row.

“Nick is a very tough competitor,” Benfield said. “Playing this tournament without him kind of opened things up for us local amateurs.”

Lyerly’s absence was felt but it didn’t diminish Benfield’s victory. It was a stellar field that he conquered.

“As soon as I saw the bracket, I knew it was going to be a long, hard journey,” Benfield said. “To get through my side of the bracket I was going to have to get past the No. 1 seed (Mitchell Swaringen) and a lot of great golfers. And there was plenty of firepower on the other side of the bracket with guys like Keith (Dorsett) and my old high school teammate Kevin Lentz. But I just made up my mind to take it one hole at a time and one match at a time. I’m at a good place mentally right now, and the mental side of it was the key thing for me. Even if I missed a 3-foot putt, I didn’t get upset, I just went on to the next tee and hit the next shot. I have a lot of peace in my heart right now.”

And while Benfield  had never won one of the local majors, he did know that he had what it took to win. The East Rowan graduate lived for 10 years in Florida after high school and he won tournaments in the Sunshine State. He won the Venice City Golf Championship three times.

“That tournament is stroke play, but I’d say the quality of the tournament is equivalent to the Rowan Amateur,” Benfield said. “Winning those Florida tournaments gave me a lot of belief in myself. I believed that if I didn’t give up, I’d eventually get one of the big ones I’ve been chasing in Rowan County.”

Benfield was an excellent high school golfer in the late 1990s when both Salisbury and East Rowan were putting stellar teams on the course. There was a year that the top six golfers in the South Piedmont Conference were all from the East team coached by Gilbert Sprinkle. East was a serious state contender in 3A.

Benfield was SPC Player of the Year in 1998. He and Lentz were co-medalists that year in the Rowan County Championships.

“We had strong, deep teams at East, and I got to play with guys like Patrick Gregg, Karl Mitchell, Joe Yochim, Lee Frick and Kevin Lentz,” Benfield said. “I’ve always loved to play golf. I’m a member at McCanless and that’s my home course, but I also play at Warrior, Corbin, the Country Club.”

Benfield handled his first-round match on Friday with 25th-seeded Preston Jones.

Then he got past long-hitting William Little, the ninth seed and a recent Labor Day Four-Ball champ, in the second round on Saturday morning.

On Saturday afternoon, Benfield upset Swaringen, the top-seeded qualifying medalist, to get to the Final Four.

It looked like the end of the line for Benfield on Sunday morning in his semifinal against Lipe.

“Derek was really playing well and was making a lot of 12-foot and 15-foot putts and I got down three holes at one point,” Benfield said. “I was missing those sidewinders, those 3-f00t and 4-foot putts with some break to them, but I hung in there.”

Benfield’s back-nine rally began with a birdie on No. 12 and he got back even by the end of regulation.

He won the first playoff hole with a par, a hole playing tougher than normal with the flag placement on a slope.

That put him in the Sunday afternoon final against Dorsett, who had won the tournament four times. Dorsett had been the last golfer to win the Rowan Amateur (in 2017) before Lyerly took over and started a relentless string of wins.

Dorsett had survived the third-seeded Lentz in another 19-hole marathon.

“I know I was the underdog in the final because Keith has won this tournament often,” Benfield said. “We both really wanted to win. We’re two guys in our 40s who have known each other a long time, and we competed as hard as we could,”

There never was much separation between the golfers. Dorsett was 1-up after six. The match was level after nine.

Benfield bogeyed 10 as Dorsett went 1-up again.

“Neck and neck all the way,” Benfield said. “I win 17 with a par, and then all of a sudden, we’re even and we’re heading to 18.”

Dorsett hit his drive out of bounds on 18 for a penalty, and Benfield thought he’d won the tournament right here.

“But Keith salvaged a miraculous par with two great shots, and I missed an 8-foot birdie putt that would have won it,” Benfield said.

Benfield didn’t blink, He did win it on the ensuing playoff hole.

“I hit my best tee shot of the tournament,” Benfield said. “Hit a really nice baby draw and put myself in great position. Then I hit a wedge shot within about 2 feet for the birdie.”

That did it. Dorsett congratulated him, as did a lot of friends who knew he’d get a Rowan major sooner or later.

“I don’t think I lost a golf ball the entire tournament, just kept it in play, hit it well enough, and stayed in it mentally through some tough matches,” Benfield said. “I finally took one across the finish line.”

The heat was tough on his long beard, but the beard has been as much a part of him for the last 10 years as his 7-iron.

It’s not going anywhere.

“The beard is a fixture,” he said with a laugh.

He’ll enjoy this win forever, and he’s stoked about it, but it won’t be long before he’s trying to win another tournament.

Benfield has a Father & Son event coming up in Pinehurst next.

Then he’ll get mentally ready for the Labor Day Four-Ball at the Country Club of Salisbury. He plans to partner with East student Landon Merrell, one of the area’s top young golfers.

“You learn a lot as you go in this game,” Benfield said. “The thing you have to remember about golf is that unless you’re someone like Tiger Woods, you’re going to lose a lot more times than you win. You just have to hang in there because when you do win one, it’s definitely worth it.”

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