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Carmello Benassi named Pro of the Year by the Kentucky section of PGA

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photo submitted Carmello Benassi shows his KPGA Pro of the Year award to his father, Carmello, at a nursing home outside of Bowling Green, Ky.

Carmello Benassi doesn’t remember a time in his life when he wasn’t playing golf.

He was in diapers when he first held a golf club. He played golf at Franklin County and attended Western Kentucky University on a golf scholarship.

But golf as a career?

He didn’t make that move until he was 35, but it couldn’t have turned out better.

Last month Benassi, the head pro at Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, was named the Kentucky section PGA Pro of the Year.

“It really took me aback,” said Benassi, who lives in Frankfort. “It’s quite an honor.”

Benassi didn’t know he’d won the award until it was announced at the banquet, but he did know he’d been nominated.

He had to fill out an information sheet that was given to the selection committee, which is made up of 15 people.

“I’ve been nominated four or five times,” Benassi said, “so you never know. You’re always excited, but you don’t think you’re going to win. You think, ‘OK, maybe next year,’ but you never know.”

Benassi has been the head pro at Kearney Hill for six years, and the four years prior to that he was the pro at Gay Brewer Picadome in Lexington. He also spent seven years at the Players Club and a total of three years at Juniper Hill.

“I didn’t get into golf until 1989,” he said. “Gene Hilen (the late Juniper Hill golf pro) pulled me aside and asked if I’d given any thought to getting into golf as a business, that I wasn’t getting any younger.

“People asked me that all the time, but golf was my hobby, my escape,” Benassi said, “and I knew so many people in the business who were burned out, wanted to get out, after playing golf all their life they hated being around it.”

And Benassi didn’t want to put himself in a position where he could ever hate the game his father, Carmello Benassi, introduced him to at a young age.

“My dad cut off clubs for me,” the younger Benassi said. “There are pictures of me in diapers putting around the house. I got started very, very young.

“I always tell the story that I remember when I was in the first grade at Good Shepherd, and the nun said we had to go in and study, and I told the nun the clock said I should be on the golf course,” he added. “I’d be on the tractor pulling the out the hoses to water the greens, and I was all of 4 or 5 years old.”

Benassi grew up playing golf, and he did that at Juniper Hill.

“At Juniper back then your parents would drop you off and you’d play golf until the pool opened,” he said. “Then you’d swim all day until the pool closed, and you’d go back to the golf course.

“That’s when Buck Blankenship started there, and then there was Ernie Sampson,” Benassi said. Blankenship built Juniper Hill Golf Course.

Despite his misgivings Benassi decided to make golf a career, and it’s one he doesn’t regret.

“Every job has its good and bad points,” he said. “It’s what you want out of it.”

Benassi started at Juniper as an assistant under Hilen before moving to the Players Club for seven years. He returned to Juniper before taking the head pro job at Picadome.

One of the ironies of a career as a golf pro is that it doesn’t leave a lot of time to play golf.

Benassi, 54, has had three shoulder surgeries and a spine fusion, and that’s had an effect on his game.

“My level of playing is not what it was,” he said. “I’m not able to compete with the younger guys anymore, when you see how far they hit it. I’d like to be, but that’s not realistic.

“I still play in events the section has,” Benassi added. “I play in most of them, about 10 or 12 a year, and I always come back to the Governor’s Open to see everybody.

“People say they want to get into golf as a business, and I say let’s talk about it. If you’re getting into it to play golf, don’t get in it.”

But the other aspects of the job more than make up for the loss of time on the course. Benassi teaches about 15 junior golfers from Frankfort and has about 30-40 students total he teaches on a regular basis who are in high school or younger. He also gives lessons to adults.

“Teaching is one of the highlights,” Benassi said about his job. “When a child or an adult gets that gleam in their eyes when they hit a good shot, it’s rewarding to pass on your knowledge and skills so someone can improve.

“The second thing is the operation,” he added.” I have a very good staff, and our superintendent does a great job. People say they like the course, and you want to make sure they enjoy themselves. Customer service is a top priority.”

Benassi feels like he learned his craft from the best.

 “Gene was a character,” he said. “He was a good man, and he did a lot for golf.

“What’s neat is in my 20 years of golf I worked under Gene and he’s in the Hall of Fame, and I worked under Danny McQueen (at Players Club) for seven years and he’s in the Hall of Fame.”

Blankenship, who died in 1997, was inducted into the Hall of Fame this fall.

“I’ve worked with two people in my career who helped me get where I am,” Benassi said. “Gene was a promoter and Danny was a worker, and I try to use what they’ve taught me.”