18-year-old golfer Ben, a South Staffordshire resident could well be the next Midlander to make it big on the professional circuit after Andy Sullivan and Richard Mansell.
He slips under the radar a little, doesn’t trumpet too loudly about his achievements and enjoys a singular golfing existence. However, everybody at his home club Enville knows of his talent and crucially, so do the England Golf organisation. Long due a chat with him, we had a sit down at Enville with Ben and his friend and mentor David Westwood on Ryder Cup Friday.
David runs Luxury Golf Brands, he’s a regular visitor to the pro shops of the Midlands looking after the accounts for Galvin Green, Bridgestone and SuperStroke among others. His relationship with Ben began the best part of a decade ago.
“I’ve become great friends with the family. Richard Copsey (Head Pro, Enville GC) called me one day and said I’ve got a kid here who I think is really special, you might want to come and meet him and look after him with some GG gear etc, that’s how it all got started. I was little disappointed as my own son got started as well but his golf interest didn’t last into his teenage years, so Ben’s become something of a surrogate golfing son to me.”
Although David, something of an elite golfer himself in his younger days won’t go near Ben in terms of teaching him how to play, he’s become something of a mentor instead, and an occasional caddie. He’s the one that Ben goes to when he’s in need of advice in more of a mental game sense, he needs a grounding or simply just about life in general. Having a close-knit trusted circle of friends and confidants around him is clearly vitally important to Ben.
He hit his first golf balls at the age of four with his Dad Steve at the old Swindon GC, the bug came along instantly and soon he arrived at Enville. Ben attributes his early golf progress to Richard at Enville, beginning with weekend junior group coaching sessions on the range. His steely determination to succeed was evident pretty much straight away.
“You have to work, harder than you would ever think really, whatever you think is enough – it’s more. My Dad never pushed me to go for coaching, he’d just let me know when he was coming for a game and see you in a bit. I’d usually jump in the car too, the love for the game was instant really for me, I never wanted to miss an opportunity to come and play.”
Ben won the Enville GC Club Championship at the age of 13, it’s the only occasion he’s ever entered it. Enville is a club renowned for having high quality players in its member ranks.
So many young golfers who shine brightly in their youth and are talked up, don’t end up carrying their promise into adulthood. A mixture of things can cause that, Ben’s made sure that he’s not one of them by maintaining a good golf/life balance, having the right people around him and not being quite as involved in the competitive ranks when young as his talent would have easily supported. All about the golf/life balance in those days.
“I knew at 9,10 or 11 I didn’t want to be pumping balls down the range all day, I wanted to play a few holes, go home and get on the trampoline or the bike, normal things.”
Ben, who has never played county golf for Staffordshire still managed to attract national attention and received his first England junior call-up at the age of 15. It was his watershed moment.
“Once you get to 15/16, that’s when you look at it and go, right now I’ve got some work to do, time to focus on this full time.”
Ben also had a difficult personal decision to make once he’d been introduced to England Golf Coach Rob Watts, the valuable early years learning with Richard at Enville had to come to an end.
“Rob wanted to work with me, and I wanted to work with him. When I went for a lesson with him to begin with I was hitting it great, and I just got a different feeling and sense that this was the right way to go. I didn’t want the two styles of coaching to conflict, it just can’t be like that, and I went with how I felt would work best.”
“It’s also in elite tournaments, you’ve got to have your coach there with you and Rob gets to five or six a year with his England Golf role, so having someone on hand is vital.”
Self-motivation doesn’t appear to be an issue for Ben, that’s the theme of this, he’s a golfer who sets targets and won’t settle for anything, every step of the journey has another steeper one to climb after it.
“I’ve been in the England set up quite a long time now, and it’s easy to get complacent, but really you’ve got to think, how can I play for GB & Ireland, for Europe?”
Now he’s reached 18 he’s made it to the adult England squad – a slightly different world awaits. What are the differences and demands now?
“I just like how we’re treated from the off, you’re here because of what you’ve achieved they tell us, if you need help take it, take as much as you want. That’s what I’ve done with Rob, with the nutritionists, on the putting side with the drills. The men’s squad is next level it really is – now you’re in the Walker Cup mix and if you play well you’ve got a chance of that.”
The Walker Cup 2025 just arrived slightly too soon for Ben, his early season results didn’t quite go as well as he wanted, but he wasn’t far away from selection. Plus it wasn’t all misfortune, in April Ben won his first major adult event, the prestigious Berkhamsted Trophy.
Another bonus is that he only has to wait a year for another Walker Cup chance, instead of the normal two. Long term, this year’s miss might be a blessing in disguise, especially as it’s a home tie in 2026 at Lahinch in Ireland.
“You be in the mix you’ve got to be winning Lytham Trophy, English Amateur, going over to America and competing well in the US AM. There’s only a year, so I haven’t got a lot of time, but yes it’s a massive target to make that team, lot of hard work ahead.”
Ben is so laid back as a person and so focussed on right now as a golfer that he doesn’t really set plans for his future when asked about turning pro. He’s not a fan of golf team competitiveness (unless the names Walker or Ryder are attached to it) and for that reason has never considered the American College route. That’s not to say he’s aloof or arrogant and doesn’t mix well, he’s a nice young man and a popular figure at Enville too, our chat interrupted numerous times by their well-wishing members.
A big year ahead in 2026, if all goes to plan he’ll evaluate and target the pro ranks and rather like in his junior days when he skipped county level he’ll do something similar there too.
“I’ll go for a Challenge Tour card, no lower level than that, I want to be playing alongside the very top players right at the start. People settle for lower-level tours because you can make money, fair enough, but you don’t get to test yourself against the very best. For me there’s no point in that.”
Ben, who has this trusted team around him is as single-minded as any individual we’ve ever spoken to. To be dedicated to all facets of golfing day in day out takes a lot of dedication and personal sacrifice. None of it puts him off one iota.
“I just love my own company, I mean I get up in the morning, get to the gym about 6-ish, then go to work (golf) for the day, get home have a bit of down time, work out again, bed early, do it all again the day after.”
In addition to being indebted to Richard at Enville for his early career coaching Ben also wants to credit another local pro and close friend, Andy Gorman for his help too. Andy bases his short game excellence centre at Wishaw GC and has done an amazing job as Ben’s short game coach for a number of years. Andy doesn’t charge Ben for coaching, simply helping a friend out in the belief that he’ll make the DP European Tour one day.
He’s obviously wants to credit his sponsors too, without them his time devoted to the game and subsequent progress couldn’t be as successful.
Outside of golf Ben enjoys life on two wheels, push biking and motor bikes too and generally messing around with cars, part of a family obsession.
Ben’s dad Steve, a self-employed heating engineer has invested so much of his time and money with his son, travelling around to events in the family campervan as a junior.
“I’m lucky because of the whole family really. My older brothers bite into my head a bit, we’ve missed a couple of holidays because of the money gone into this. Mum (Tracy) works all the time, makes sacrifices, I can’t wait till I can retire them.”
Extra motivation if any more was required.
“It humbles you a bit, thinking I’m so good at this game, but hang on, wait a minute and remember who you need to do this well for. I don’t mind it at all; I want that sort of pressure and you can’t get better if you’re not humble.”
