Ben Carpenter could always envision a result like Friday’s. But it took some extra work to make it happen.
Carpenter, a member of the Country Club of Darien and a sophomore on the golf team at Yale, is the champion of the 120th Connecticut Amateur. His par on the first playoff hole gave him a 1-up win over two-time champion Rick Dowling in the 36-hole championship match at Ridgewood CC in Danbury.
On a hot, sunny day in western Connecticut, the players traded punches for more than eight hours, neither going ahead by more than three holes.
“Winning the Connecticut Amateur means so much,” Carpenter said afterward. “I have put in a lot of hard work these past three years. My goal as a junior was to play college golf and now that I am a collegiate golfer my goal is to be the best amateur golfer that I can be.”