Ben Carpenter and the swarm of fellow zealots took off in a frenzied dash when the 2023 Ryder Cup spectator gates opened at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome. He and other fortunate ones completed their quest to snag first-come-first-served seats in the first tee grandstand.
“The stands went straight up around the tee, like the Roman Colosseum,” said Carpenter, captain of the 2024-25 Yale golf team. “The sun then rose. Spectacular!”
Carpenter was there with his uncle, Paul Mann, in the throng of about 5,000 spectators on day one because his father, Charlie, had obtained the prized tickets about one year earlier. This was a true Roman golf holiday for Carpenter, his father, uncle and grandfather, Mike Mann.
“I was on the sixth green when an unbelievable roar came after Jon Rahm had just missed a hole-in-one at 7,” he said of the first day of the Ryder Cup. “Players can’t control the fans’ spirit, which was so intense there. I also saw how much the players put into their games; seeing Rahm with all kinds of mirrors on the practice putting green, working for hours for that correct stroke. And Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and everybody on the range. Preparation is solely their control. Great players control the controllables.”
When Carpenter returned home to Darien, Connecticut, he brought back just that, a beneficial goal for his game: control the controllables.
Carpenter, the 2022 Connecticut Amateur champion and 2023 New York State Amateur runner-up, has focused on adhering to this conviction ever since the Ryder Cup concluded last fall.
An example occurred in June when he tied for medalist honors at 6-under-par 138 with five other players in the Connecticut Amateur stroke qualifying at Torrington Country Club. He won his first two matches before losing on the 19th hole in a quarterfinal to Ashton Lewis.
Carpenter’s performance followed a solid spring season at Yale. In the opening event, he was tied for second place after the second round of the All-American Intercollegiate Stroke Play in Houston, Texas, and finished in a tie for eighth. “Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston – the field was outstanding; it showed Ben is an elite player,” Yale coach Keith Tyburski said.
Some other Carpenter highlights were being co-medalist in The Roar-EE Invitational Stroke Play and medalist in the Ivy League Championship.
“Have a plan to hit the ball before you get over it. ‘OK, 5 yards against the wind.’ Have the plan already before address. On the pre-shot routine, do the same thing. Now hit the shot. … You can’t control results. You can control the process.” – Ben Carpenter
The Carpenter-led Bulldogs qualified for the NCAA Division I Regional in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The team finished 12th, and Carpenter tied for 45th.
He was disappointed with these results, but not in the process of his mental game.
“Have a plan to hit the ball before you get over it,” he said. “OK, 5 yards against the wind.’ Have the plan already before address. On the pre-shot routine, do the same thing. Now hit the shot. … You can’t control results. You can control the process.”
Controlling the controllables sounds rudimentary, but it is not so easily doable. As golf legend Bobby Jones once said: “Competitive golf is played mainly on a 5½-inch course: the space between your ears.”
Carpenter credits James Nicholas, a 2019 Yale graduate and current DP World Tour member, with helping him to define better the controllables and uncontrollables of golf. Nicholas said attitude, pre-shot routine, focus and body language are controllables. Tee time, weather, bounces, wind, opponents’ scores, pin and tee positions are some items on the long list of uncontrollables.
Carpenter believes his game made a “great progression” in the spring when he was named All-Northeast and first-team Ivy League.
This came after a “hot and cold” 2023 season. One disappointment was being the leader in the New York State Amateur for 63 holes and losing the tournament. “Kyle Downey came back and won it in the last round with a 5-under 67,” Carpenter said. “I didn’t control the pressure I was feeling, the outside stuff. It was a learning experience.”
His 74 dropped him to 285 and into a tie for second with Anthony Delisanti.
This was not to say Carpenter’s game needed a massive overhaul. After all, he was second-team All-Ivy in 2023, first-team All-Ivy, Ivy medalist and the Connecticut Amateur champion in 2022, winning the latter in 37 holes over Richard Dowling at Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury. In 2019, he won the Metropolitan Golf Association’s Carter Cup and qualified for the Met Amateur and Met Open.
Driving with accuracy and length – Carpenter says he has “about a 300- to 310-yard carry” – contributed to his success. This has always been one of his strengths, as his clubhead speed typically is 120-123 mph. Tyburski says Carpenter has all the shots.
Still, Carpenter, the competitor, needs to remind himself to “let it go” if his shots and score aren’t good enough, as difficult as that might be. As for results, he remembers this advice from Nicholas: “If your opponent shoots 59, 59, 59, 59, you probably won’t win, even if you shoot 59, 59, 59, 60.”
Another valuable doctrine Carpenter says is “if I hit a bad shot, it’s OK to get mad at that moment. But then let it go. Take my glove off and prepare for my next shot.”