SMITHFIELD, RI (WPRI) — This week’s Cardi’s Furniture & Mattresses Hometown Sports Hero is Evan Benson.
The 14-year-old Chepachet native found the sport of Disc Golf in 2023 and just completed his first Professional Disc Golf Association season, where he racked up nine rated rounds over 1,000 and 13 wins. That success helping to make him the #1 ranked Amateur in the world.
"At the beginning of last year I decided to play in a vouple of tournaments and started playing in a lot more tournaments than I expected," Benson said. "And yes, I mean my goal for the end of 2026 was to get to 1010 and the fact that I'm already here in July is crazy."
The secret to his amazing debut season, not really a surprise.
"Yes, I mean a lot of practice, I practice like everyday basically," Benson said. "Lot of putting practice, a lot of practice in the front yard, playing a lot of courses."
And out on the courses around New England, Benson is noticing more people trying the sport and he's hoping his success brings more people to the sport.
"It's definitely gotten more popular over the last few years, since COVID," Benson said. "There's been a lot more people even over the last few months there's been a lot more people joining the P.D.G.A and everything so the sport is definitely growing."
Evan plans for continue competing as an amateur till next Summer so he can make another run at the World Junior Championship and if all goes well at that tournament, the next step would be to turn pro.
"Yes, I mean that would be really cool just to play against Heimburg, Anthony Barela, players who are just so really good at disc golf and know the game so well," Benson said. "It would be really cool to get to compete against players like that. Like winning the first Pro Tour event, I would only imagine how amazing that would be."
If you have a Hometown Sports Hero you’d like to nominate, email sports@wpri.com.
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