Kid golfer does well against older players

Ben Crancer

Ben Crancer of Kirkwood has been doing very well this year in Gateway Junior PGA golf tournaments in the 12-13 age group. That wouldn't necessarily be special except Ben is only 10 years old.

In the first four local Junior PGA tournaments this year, he finished first in the 12-13 division in three and second in the other.

The week after the July 4 weekend, he won an 18-hole tournament at the new Forest Park course with a 75.

Before the summer golf season is over, Ben expects to play in as many as 17 different tournaments. And that's only a portion of his golfing activity.

Ben said, "Some weeks, I practice five days and then there are two one-day tournaments." He also has sessions with his golf instructor, Helen Kurtin of the Family Golfplex.

That facility has only a par-3 course so most of his work there is on the golf basics.

His family belongs to The Players Club golf course along I-44. That's an full-size 18-hole layout with nine holes for par-3 play.

Ben has some nearby golfing buddies. Parents in the neighborhood have set up a car pool to get the kids to their almost-daily golfing rounds.

This fall, Ben will be a 5th grader at Robinson Elementary School in Kirkwood.

He's not sure where he wants to go to high school. But, he's already picked a college.

He'd like to go to Stanford University. That school regularly wins the NCAA title as having the best all-around sports program in the country.

And, from a golfing standpoint, it's also where Tiger Woods attended before he hit stardom on the professional golf tour.

Ben also would like to be a professional golfer. But, he said, if that doesn't work, Stanford will be a good school for his second occupation choice.

"If I didn't get far as a professional golfer, I'd probably become a CPA," he said. Stanford's Business School is world renowned.

Ben started playing golf when he was 4. He started with the same set of cut-down clubs that his dad, Ralph, had used when he started golf as a kid.

He has new Callaway clubs now. But, because he's still relatively short, the clubs also have shortened shafts. His regular set includes four woods (1, 4, 7 and 9) and three wedges.

Over the Father's Day weekend, Ben got his first taste of international competition. He competed in the U.S. Little People Pepsi Tournament in Quincy, Ill. He was in a field of 80 players from across the country and from some foreign nations.

He considers that experience to be his best so far in golf. "It was fun to be with kids from all over the world. I got to see and play with kids who are equal or even better than I am," he said.

Because of the tougher competition, Ben played with kids his own age. He finished sixth with a 76-73=149. That was just four strokes back from the winner.

Another good part of the weekend was the chance for Ben and his father to compete in a nine-hole father-son tournament. Ben and Ralph shot a par 35 in that preliminary event.

Ben says the strengths of his golf game now are his approach shots and his play near and on the green. He admits he can be erratic with his driver and other fairway clubs. What bothers him most is that sometimes he can't figure out why his shot went astray.

His biggest weakness? "That's not choosing the right club to get out of my messes," he said.

That's where his golf lessons with Helen Kurtin come in. Much of that work is designed to smooth out his swing and help him develop a proper swing tempo.

He said he's taken lessons for Kurtin for 1 1/2 years. He said his mechanics are much better and that's resulted in greatly improved scoring in tournaments.

About the only time he doesn't enjoy golf is when he plays with kids "who don't like to play in a group."

Golf isn't his only sports interest. He also likes to play basketball and soccer.

As for school, he's a straight-A student. His favorite subjects are math and reading.