FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
to
MENTORING MOMENTS
PGA professional Bob Benning’s multitude of experiences have taught him valuable
lessons that he now shares with others on and off the golf course | by LEONARD SHAPIRO
E
Photography by ANDREW HARNIK
Everyone has lifechanging tipping
points, and longtime PGA teaching
professional Bob Benning’s face still lights
up when he describes one of his own.
With instant clarity, he remembers a
glorious day during his sophomore year at
a Dayton, Ohio, high school when he began
to have an inkling that golf was definitely in
his future.
His team was entered in the local
district championship. Benning and most
18
of his teenage teammates came into the
event struggling with their games. For
Benning, it got even worse when he came
to the course’s par-3 fifth hole. He slapped
an ugly shot off the tee that soon turned
out to be gorgeous in every way possible.
“I skulled a 5-iron,” Benning, now 81
and a PGA Life Member, recalls 65 years
later, “and the ball dribbled down a hill,
then ran all the way up to the green and
rolled right into the cup for a hole-in-one.
Talk about a turnaround. I went on and
won the individual title and we won the
team title, too. Quite a change. It really did
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 4
Bob Be