By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — The Erwin Middle School golf team wasn’t quite ready to bring back the Ryder Cup, but it’s been quite a group of young golfers.

Sometimes the best competition for Erwin’s ‘A’ team was Erwin’s ‘B’ team. The squad, 11 strong ranges from sixth-graders to eighth-graders.

“This was my coaching debut and I feel very fortunate that I got to start out with a team like this,” said coach Shane Benfield, who won the Rowan Amateur last summer. “It’s a very special group. I don’t know. Maybe there’s something in the tap water in Rowan County. We’ve always got good golfers coming up, and a lot of them seem to be in the East Rowan area.”

Golf genes can be inherited just as much as running back genes or pitching genes. Golf is a game of hand-eye coordination, That part of the equation can be passed down.

Benfield said there are quite a few sons of notable players on the team, including two of his own sons.

“We’ve got the next generation out here,” Benfield said with a chuckle. “I don’t want to brag, and it may not be polite to say it, but these boys put a whooping on the competition.”

Erwin shot 146 the other day. That’s the top four scorers for nine holes, so they averaged 36.5 strokes. They played a par-34 front nine, but that sort of depth is still impressive.

The team normally practices twice a week at McCanless and goes to the driving range at Corbin Hills another day. Benfield and his father, George, another accomplished golfer, get most of their coaching done during their time at the driving range.

“We try to fix alignments and that sort of thing, but most of these boys don’t need much fixing,” Benfield said. “We’ve got a lot of boys that can shoot in the 30s and some that can shoot par.”

Brody Benfield and Holden Frick are just two of the names to know for the future, but the most advanced golfer at this point is Cam Honeycutt, who is the son of Ryan Honeycutt, a familiar name in local golf circles.

“Cam has played a lot of tournament golf already, he loves the game, and he’s consistently good,” Benfield said. “He hits a baby draw down the middle, and he can chip and putt. He’s always got a chance to go out there and just light it up with a 32. Honestly, there’s not a lot I can teach him. I just turn him loose.”

Benfield is working on getting the Erwin team entered in the 20th Tarheel Youth Golf Association North Carolina Middle School Championship, an annual  tournament that will be held in the Pinehurst area on Feb. 25.

“It would be good for the boys to compete and I’d like to see how we stack up with the best from around the state,” Benfield said.