Adam Benza has won two consecutive Silver Creek Country Club men's club championships.
That alone is a nice accomplishment for the 28-year-old Hellertown resident. However, what makes Benza's golf game so special is that he's an amputee playing with a prosthesis below his right knee.
Now Benza, a winner of four prestigious regional amputee golf
tournaments, is testing his game against the best players in the world
in the 2014 World Disabled Golf Championships, which run from today to
Friday.
Benza will compete in the three-round, 54-hole team (15 countries)
and individual stroke play tournament at the One Way Golf Club in
Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan; located approximately 75
kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
Benza took up golf at a young age.
"I started playing golf at the age of 3, my father got me into it," Benza said. "I was always athletic, even after I lost my leg due to cancer (Ewing's sarcoma), playing many different sports as I was growing up, until I got to high school and realized I was a lot better at golf and focused on that. My right leg is amputated below the knee. I played all four years on my high school golf team, and was the captain along with being named the MVP my senior year at Saucon Valley in 2004-05 season."
Benza, who currently has a 1.6 USGA handicap index, is proud to be a
member of the four-player American team, and to get a chance to test his
game against premier competition.
"My expectations for this tournament are to win," said Benza, the 2010 and 2012 champion of the Eastern Regional Amputee Golf Championship. "If you're going to go into something thinking you aren't going to do well, then you won't. The individual title will be hard because there are some amazing players going over there. For the team they take the top 3 of 4 scores for the day, and on paper our team has one of the best teams, so I would like to think we would be a favorite there."
Benza's teammates are Kenny Bontz, Steve Terpak, and Ryan Brenden. He
noted he made the team due to his past tournament performances.
"Basically they look at your performance in tournaments along with your current handicap and select the best players in the country," Benza said. "The whole concept of the World Disabled Golf Championship is to get disabled golf into the Paralympics, so they really want the best disabled players in the world to be there to show what they can do. Fortunately, I get to go represent the United States of America."
To raise money for the trip to Japan, Benza's fellow club members at Silver Creek got behind him and his teammates.
"I would not have been able to do this without the support from every single person at Silver Creek Country Club, staff and members, donating money through the Miracle on Linden event to help sponsor our team to go over and compete there," Benza said. "It's unbelievable to be at a facility like Silver Creek where everyone feels like family. Everyone there really got behind me and I would like to thank them for it."
Benza said the strength of his game is consistency and accuracy.
"I would say the strengths of my game are that I am pretty well-rounded," Benza said. "I don't kill it off the tee, hit my irons a long way, and make every putt. I'm pretty consistent and try not to put myself in a lot of trouble. I would like to think I am a very accurate player. My whole key is fairways, greens, and two putt. If there is one thing I am best at it would probably be getting off the tee. If I could hit my driver on all 18 holes of a golf course, I would."
Source : lehighvalleylive, 1st Oct 2014
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