BLYTHEWOOD – It may be early spring, but it’s been a great golfing year for Josiah Benton.
Benton, a sophomore at Gray Collegiate who lives in Blythewood, made a double eagle shot, or an albatross, at the Cobblestone Park Gold Course back in January. Last week while golfing with a buddy at Cobblestone Park’s Black course, he sank a hole-in-one.
“Personally, when I’m going out and playing with some of my friends, I feel good about my game,” he said. “Yesterday (Sunday) a buddy of mine went out with me and we both shot four under on a nine. The game feels good for the most part at least.”
Benton opened the year with a bang. He and his friends who were on the Blythewood golf team went to Cobblestone Gold Jan. 13. “We thought it would be fun,” he said.
On the Par-5 third hole, Benton hit his opening drive of the 503-yard hole and it fell about 200 yards short of the green. Then he used a five iron to hit it onto the green, and it fell in the hole for a 3-under-par finish.
Then on April 17, he and friend Benny Bonaroti went out to the Cobblestone Black Course. On the 170-yard eighth hole Benton lined up a shot off the tee with his seven iron. He aligned himself for a direct shot at the pin and sent the ball toward it. That particular hole sets higher than the tee box, so he did not see exactly where his shot landed—or even if he made the green.
“When I hit it I thought I had hit it over the green,” he said. “We walked up to the green and I didn’t see the ball, and Benny and I spent about five minutes looking around when he said we should check the hole.”
Indeed, that’s where the two found it.
Both shots were firsts for Benton, who has been playing golf since he was 2 years old and playing competitively since he was 8, including stints with both the Westwood and Blythewood golf teams.
He said he appreciated both shots, but the albatross in January stands out a little more.
“It feels like when I found it in the hole it was more impressive to me because it was a farther shot,” he said.
Benton, who has attended and played golf at Gray Collegiate this past year and said he looks forward to finishing his first season at Gray and continuing at the school until he graduates. From there is college, where he’s thinking about Stanford, UNC-Chapel Hill, Florida, and in South Carolina, Coastal Carolina.
For now he’s keeping his academics on point and enjoying playing the links.
“Typically we play pretty good,” he said about his team. “It just feels like everybody in the school is more connected to each other and it’s a nice feeling.”