SPC champs: Mason Mainville, Griffin Robbins, Brady McIntyre,
Cam Honeycutt, Brody Benfield, Coach Shane Benfield.
All-SPC golfers.
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS – East Rowan senior Brady McIntyre and freshman Cam Honeycutt battled for five playoff holes on Monday – and both parred five playoff holes.
They were playing No. 18 at Irish Creek over and over again, both saving pars, both sinking impossible putts.
“I thought we might have to ask people to turn on all the car lights and illuminate the 18th hole, so they could finish it,” East coach Shane Benfield said. “Like they did in the movie.”
There aren’t a lot of golf movies. Well, there’s “Caddyshack.” That’s on everyone’s lost of classics. There’s also “Happy Gilmore,” “Tin Cup” and The Legend of Bagger Vance.” That last one provided the car-lights scene to which Benfield was referring.
McIntyre and Honeycutt headed for home without finishing. Their day – and night – ended in a draw. They were declared Co-Players of the Year for the South Piedmont Conference.
“I think that was the best possible ending,” Benfield said. “I told them they had just played a match that will be talked about for years to come. It was fun for me to watch them duke it out and the gallery that was watching them kept growing. The way they played they both deserved to be player of the year and neither deserved not to be. They both played like champions.”
The South Piedmont Conference is a pretty solid boys golf league. All eight schools have enough golfers to post team scores in the weekly matches. Salisbury hasn’t had any luck, but is still a very good team. South Rowan, West Rowan and Carson can challenge Salisbury, a 2025 state champ, on their best days.
East has been blessed this season with good health, two outstanding players, three more very good players, and a coach who has helped them push together toward a potential state championship. East has come close to accomplishing that feat, most recently in the Nick Lyerly-Logan Shuping era, but has never won a team state title.
Monday’s SPC Tournament, 18 holes at The Club at Irish Creek, instead of the standard nine-hole day, is one of the events all the SPC golfers circle on the calendar. It’s a measuring stick, the final day of the regular season, as teams and individuals transition toward regional, and, hopefully, state competition.
The foursome that included McIntyre and Honeycutt was on the course first. The two Mustangs were playing with Salisbury’s Sam Goodman and Northwest Cabarrus’ Chase Roberts. All four were playing so smoothly and so briskly, they were moving at a quicker pace from everyone else and put some distance – several holes – between themselves and the golfers behind them.
“Those four were all neck-and-neck, pushing each other,” Benfield said. “When I was watching them on 15, Brady made a crazy birdie putt, a 30-foot sidewinder. Cam had to scramble on 15, but then he made a 15-foot putt to par.”
Roberts had a double bogey to drop back a bit late in the round, but Goodman stayed in it through all 18 holes. McIntyre, Honeycutt and Goodman all shot 71s to share medalist honors.
Then they waited for all the golfers to finish and for scores to be posted, so the three-man Player of the Year playoff didn’t start until after 7 p.m. They headed for the 18th tee. Goodman bogeyed. The Mustang pair parred.
Then they kept playing No. 18, kept going and going and going until they finally called it a tie.
“That’s a pretty long par 3, and they started off from the blues, but then they started moving the tees back,” Benfield said. “It was playing a good 240 yards, but they kept making pars.”
East won comfortably for the day and for the season. Besides the twin 71s, Griffin Robbins shot a stellar 73.
“Griffin had a double bogey on 4,” Benfield said. “If not for that one hole, he would have been right in there with Brady and Cam.”
Brody Benfield, the coach’s son, made some clutch par putts to salvage a 79 and provided East’s fourth counting score.
Mason Mainville had an off day with an 87, but he’s talented. He could shoot a counting score in the regional or the state.
Salisbury’s scorers in addition to Goodman were John McCoy and Bryant Davis with 78s and Nolt Lescoe with an 83. The Hornets are stretched thin for spring athletes. Davis also plays tennis, while Lescoe is a baseball player.
East’s focus now turns to the upcoming regional at Sapona Golf Club in Lexington on May 5. The 5A State Championships will be held on that same course on May 11-12.
“I don’t know much about Sapona, but we’ll get some practice rounds in and we’ll do a lot of studying,” Benfield said.
Benfield, named SPC Coach of the Year, has promised to shave off his famous beard – if the Mustangs win the state championship. That’s great motivation.
