Father’s Day can be a bittersweet day — moreso for some than most. Ben Carr knows. Carr, a native of Columbus, Ga., and a rising sophomore at Georgia Southern, lost his father unexpectedly earlier this year. No one would have faulted him for curling up into a ball indefinitely, much less neglecting his golf game. But in June, on Father’s Day weekend of all times, Carr did anything but. At his home course, the Country Club of Columbus, Carr tallied four rounds of 68 or lower — including a course-record 61 — to win the Southeastern Amateur by a whopping 10 shots. It was one of four top-10 finishes in Carr’s past eight events.
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LYING FOUR: Not to poop on the rest of your tournament, but 61 is pretty good.
BEN CARR: Yeah, that’s the lowest score I’ve ever shot, either competitively or just playing around. My lowest score before that was a 64, and that was in a high school tournament. I’ve never really been close to a 61, whether it’s just playing around or in a tournament. It was by far my best round of golf.
LYING FOUR: What’s it like on a day like that, when everything goes right? What does that feel like?
BEN CARR: It’s a pretty good feeling. It’s not a feeling that you’re really used to, because — I mean, you have bogey-free rounds, you shoot 67 or 68. But it’s not often that you’re 7-under through 14 and thinking about 59, thinking about the course record. It just felt like I got hot and everything was clicking. The hole looked three times bigger than it does on any other day. That was a pretty damn good feeling.
LYING FOUR: Are there moments during a round like that when you realize how well you’re playing, or do you try not to think about it?
BEN CARR: I was 7-under through 14, and it hit me that I had four holes left to play. So if I birdied all four, it was gonna be a 59. And if I birdied two of the four, it was gonna be a 61. And since it was my home course, I knew that was the course record. On 15 tee, that’s when it kind of kicked in that I could shoot a really special number. I think you’re lying if you say it doesn’t creep into your head. Of course you’re still trying your best to take it one shot at a time — but that late in the round, if you’re not thinking about a number that you’re trying to get to, then I just think you’re flat-out lying.
LYING FOUR: What is it about golf that, from week to week you can play at basically the same level, but some weeks it comes together and some weeks it doesn’t?
BEN CARR: Honestly, confidence is the biggest part of golf. I play my best golf when my confidence is at an all-time high. One of the reasons I played so well at the Southeastern Amateur was that my confidence was through the roof — I got off to a good start, and the tournament being on my home golf course, I knew that I could keep it up if I just stuck to my gameplan. I haven’t played that well for four straight rounds in my life, but the combination of being comfortable and being confident is what leads anyone to playing well.
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LYING FOUR: What’s the biggest difference between junior golf and golf at the collegiate level?
BEN CARR: For me, the biggest difference has been that in junior golf, I didn’t really know how to plan my way around a golf course. I would kind of just play a practice round, go through the motions, and show up on the first tee for the tournament. I thought I was prepared, but looking back at it, there are so many things that I would’ve done differently. I realized that as soon as I got to college. Throughout my freshman year, I got better and better at planning my way around the golf course to fit my game. If you’re able to do that, then no matter how well or how poorly you’re swinging it, you should always be able to scrape out a score that you’re happy with if you’ve got a game plan. That’s been the biggest difference for me — Coach Collins at Georgia Southern teaching me that it’s not enough to be playing good golf. You’ve got to have a game plan going into a certain golf course to get it to fit your game.
LYING FOUR: When you’re doing that and scouting out a course, what does that look like? Are there certain shots that you’re trying to position yourself to be able take?
BEN CARR: Definitely. Angles is something Coach Collins talks about all the time — finding the right angle into certain hole locations, finding the right angles off the tee box, finding the right angle to lay the ball up. Keeping yourself in position through a round of golf is one of the biggest keys to playing well — if you can hit your spots, you’re gonna play good golf. Game planning for me is all about picking those spots out in my practice round and doing everything I can during a tournament to hit those spots.
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LYING FOUR: You mentioned that Country Club of Columbus was your home course. How long have you been playing out there?
BEN CARR: Ever since I was about four years old. I grew up out there. I grew up watching the Southeastern Amateur, and I always dreamed of playing in it and winning it. Just always being out there every day played a huge role that I had at this year’s tournament.
LYING FOUR: What’s that course like?
BEN CARR: It’s a Donald Ross golf course. The greens are crowned. There’s a lot of runoff areas. It’s not a long golf course, there’s not a ton of OB. It’s really just all about angles and positioning yourself for second shots. If you can do that, you’re gonna play well. But if you get in the wrong spots two times during a round, then you’re gonna make two big numbers and not even realize how quickly it happened.
LYING FOUR: If you’ve been playing out there since you were four, then you must have a lot of memories of your dad at that golf course.
BEN CARR: A ton of memories, a ton of videos that he took. Just unlimited memories. That’s where he taught me to play the game. I can recall so many instances off the top of my head, and I was just trying to beat him. There were so many good times out there — you can probably find some of them on YouTube, if you search for his name.
LYING FOUR: Do you remember the first time you beat him out there?
BEN CARR: I don’t remember the first time I beat him out there, but the first time I beat him was at a municipal course in Columbus called Godwin Creek. It’s a nine-hole course with two par-4s and seven par-3s. And I beat him by one. I think I was eight years old. It was one of the happiest days of my life.
LYING FOUR: You had to be feeling a lot of emotions during the final round: you were playing really good golf, you were at your home course, it was Father’s Day weekend. How do you deal with all that well enough to keep performing?
BEN CARR: I think just knowing that, no matter what the result is, my father was looking down on me and he was going to be proud of me, no matter whether I finished first or last. Just having that mentality and being comfortable with that was what made it so easy to keep playing great golf. He didn’t care if I won or lost; he just wanted me to do the best I could and be humble, no matter what the end result was. I just tried not to get too wrapped up in what the win would mean. I just tried to pretend like it was four rounds on my home golf course with my little brother.
LYING FOUR: What was that feeling like, walking off 18 after the fourth round?
BEN CARR: It was an awesome feeling. My brother caddied for me, and after I made the putt on the last hole, we just gave each other a hug. The first person I saw off the green was my mom, and we hugged. She was crying, I was crying, my little brother was crying. But they were happy tears. It was a pretty damn good feeling.
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All photos: credit Georgia Southern Athletics