Grant Bennett’s impact on junior golf in SC recognized with new teaching center

Seeds sowed more than a half-century ago bore fruit Monday at Florence Country Club with the dedication of the Grant Bennett Teaching Center.

The facility will house the club’s thriving junior golf program and honor the legacy of the late Grant Bennett, the hall-of-fame teaching professional who established one of the nation’s most powerful junior programs in the 1950s and into the ’60s.

“This is the culmination for what Grant Bennett started almost 70 years ago,” said Ben Zeigler, a junior golf advocate and one of the forces behind the project.

Indeed, Florence CC provides the ideal model for junior programs and growing the game. The club’s junior program has 65 members, and the Florence Chapter of the South Carolina Junior Golf Association counts almost 100 on its rolls.

“That’s what you love to see,” said Tom Watson, the hall-of-famer who won eight major championships and flew in from Kansas City to take part in Monday’s activities. Youngsters and their parents braved unseasonably cool temperatures and intermittent rain to watch the dedication and Watson’s magic during a short-game clinic.

Bennett’s sons, David and Gary, called the tribute “awesome,” and David said, “I know Daddy and Mother are looking down with tears in their eyes and smiling at the same time.”

Grant Bennett’s teams at old McClenaghan High won more than 200 consecutive dual matches, and players he developed compiled records to envy.

Jack Lewis, the state of South Carolina’s first Walker Cup player and perhaps his most accomplished student, remembered Bennett’s focus on fundamentals and, Lewis said, “He had a passion about teaching. He loved to work with young people.”

Back in those days, stars from the Florence program included U.S. Junior champion Buddy Baker, Billy Womack, Lewis, John Orr, Don Greiner and Randy and Russell Glover. Kathy Hite won on the LPGA Tour. Both Bennett brothers earned college golf scholarships.

“He had a knack for teaching,” David Bennett said. “He worked with kids all the time, and he never gave up on a kid. If it rained, we had lessons on the rules in the golf shop. Some of the players considered him a second father.”

Over time, the Florence club lost that aura of junior excellence before Zeigler, Orr and others, with blessings of the membership, sought to turn back the clock. With assistance from the South Carolina Golf Association, the annual junior tournament again became a “must-play” event.

The program began to gain steam under head professional Steve Behr and director of instruction Paul Woodbury, and a separate building for juniors became the dream.

“It’s taken a while, but it’s worth the wait,” Zeigler said. “Paul is a fantastic teacher and the linchpin for the juniors. To get where we wanted with the program, we had to redo the chipping green and raise money for the building.”

Watson and Bob Gibbons, a leader on his construction team, worked on the green, and Orr, Heyward King and Steven McKay took the lead to provide the funding. The facility includes a locker room and a hitting bay that will feature the latest technology.

The project began to take shape a year ago and Zeigler remembers standing with Watson on the building site. “We had a range finder and worked on angles so kids could hit full shots out of the bay,” he said. “Now, we have a ‘home’ for junior golf.”

Grant Bennett moved from Florence to Pennsylvania for a couple of years, then returned to South Carolina at the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence, and WildeWood and Crickentree in Columbia. His Columbia students included future pros Jonathan Byrd, who made the Walker Cup team, and Charles Warren.

“This building is a perfect tribute,” David Bennett said. “Something that involves teaching and young people is the way he would want to be remembered.”

Chip shots. Adrian Anderson (Murrells Inlet) shot a final-round 70 to win the WSCGA Junior Girls’ Championship at Mt. Vintage in North Augusta. She shot a three-round total of 217, four strokes better than Sydney Roberts (Chesnee) and seven clear of Molly Hardwick (Lexington) and Chole Holder (Williamston).