It was almost a year ago that Ben Carr was at a low point in his golf life. He returned home to Columbus, Georgia, after finishing 52nd at the Western Amateur and was disappointed beyond measure. Sitting around the kitchen table with his mother, Leila, and younger brother, Sackett, Carr poured out his heart and shared his doubts about his future in golf.
“Just a total meltdown,” Carr said. “I just didn’t think I was good enough to do something like this. I remember saying, ‘I can’t compete with these guys.’ Just in that moment, I didn’t believe it.”
Carr just didn’t realize how close he was to a major breakthrough, and three weeks later he was runner-up at the 2022 U.S. Amateur Championship.
That week changed his life.
It began an incredible transformation that now has him eager to begin a promising professional career. Based on his performance in the PGA Tour University Ranking, where he finished 17th as a fifth-year senior at Georgia Southern, Carr is exempt for PGA Tour Canada. He plans to spend all summer playing from Saskatchewan to Quebec before trying Q-School in the fall.
“I’m really excited,” Carr said before debuting with a tied-21st finish in last week’s Elk Ridge Saskatchewan Open, the second stop on the 2023 schedule. “I’ve never been to Canada, and I’m looking forward to seeing the country. I hear it’s beautiful. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the PGA Tour Canada, and I’ve got a couple of buddies who have played there in the past, and they say it’s great. I’m excited to get up there and see if I can play some good golf.”
The opportunity to be exempt for the Canadian Tour – which rewards its best players with status on the Korn Ferry Tour – wasn’t even on Carr’s mind a year ago. He was a solid yet unheralded player from Georgia Southern when he qualified for the 2022 U.S. Amateur.
“I’ve heard a lot of good things about the PGA Tour Canada, and I’ve got a couple of buddies who have played there in the past, and they say it’s great. I’m excited to get up there and see if I can play some good golf.”
Ben Carr
Things changed when he arrived at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. He easily qualified for the 64-man match play, navigated his way though match play and found himself facing off against Sam Bennett, then the No. 3-ranked amateur in the world and the self-professed favorite.
Bennett was 5-up through 22 holes of the championship match when Carr flipped the script by making two momentous birdies – a 60-foot putt and an equally long-chip in. Carr continued to close the margin, but Bennett held on for a 1-up victory.
“I learned that I can,” Carr said. “It gave me so much confidence going forward.”
That finish at the U.S. Amateur earned him an exemption into the 2023 Masters and U.S. Open and began a journey that had seemed so unlikely.
Carr returned to Georgia Southern for his final season. He played in 10 tournaments, won the Schenkel Invitational, and finished worse than 11th only twice. At the Valspar Collegiate in Tampa, Florida, he was paired one day with his U.S. Am nemesis Bennett, who was completing his final season at Texas A&M.
Bennett was low amateur and actually contended on Sunday at the Masters. Carr missed the cut in Augusta.
“We were paired for 36 holes,” Carr said. “We talked all day, hung out for 10 hours and talked about everything. It was two weeks after the Masters, and we had a lot to talk about. We’re friends, and he’s had a nice start to his pro career and I’m happy for him.”
Carr is a member at the Country Club of Columbus (Georgia), where his regular playing partners are 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize and four-time PGA Tour winner Russell Henley.
“I’ve been super blessed with a lot of cool opportunities,” Carr said. “Larry (Mize) has been really kind to me. I saw him a couple weeks before the U.S. Open, and he’s just an awesome guy. It’s cool to have somebody like him on your side.”
In addition to playing practice rounds with Carr and Henley, Mize took them into the Champions Locker Room and showed them around the Augusta National clubhouse.
“That was really cool,” Carr said. “He just wanted to give us an experience we’ll have forever. The Amateur Dinner was really cool. I stayed in the Crow’s Nest. And I’ll always remember the Par 3 Contest with my brother. It was a great week.”
Two weeks ago, Carr was able to play a practice round before the U.S. Open with Henley – they were almost joined by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, but that didn’t work out at the last minute – and he continues to lean on his experienced friend. Whatever advice he got worked, as Carr made his first cut on tour at Los Angeles Country Club, finishing 62nd. He was second among the four amateurs to play the weekend, behind only the 2022 NCAA champion, Gordon Sargent. (Sam Bennett, now a pro, also made the cut at LACC.)
“He’s helping me ease into professional golf and what it takes to do it every week at the highest level,” Carr said of Henley’s mentoring. “He talked about how you get down on yourself and feel like you don’t belong. You have to fight that feeling every day, and you’ll be rewarded in the long run. The last couple years, he’s turned into one of the best players in the world, and it’s cool watching how he approaches things. I try to pick up little things every day I get to hang around him.”
With his easy demeanor, Carr has found it easy to fit in. Scheffler has taken a shine to him, as have many of the former University of Georgia players such as Harris English, Kevin Kisner and Sepp Straka.
“Guys like Scottie are kind of looking after me and trying to help me out,” Carr said. “I don’t go out of my way to bother them. I’m trying to hang back.”
With those perks now gone, Carr will focus on bearing down and learning the life of a professional golfer. PGA Tour Canada affords an opening that can lead Carr to his ultimate destination: a spot on the PGA Tour.
“I’m excited about the next step,” Carr said. “I’d like to play well and have a chance to get onto the Korn Ferry Tour. That would be my No. 1 goal. I’m just excited for the opportunity.”
E-MAIL STAN
Top: Through his ranking in PGA Tour University, Ben Carr earns an exemption on PGA Tour Canada.
KATHRYN RILEY, USGA