For Benetti, it’s fun

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For Benetti, it’s fun

Sports

Wednesday, 05 January 2011 13:35

News-Gazette Photo/Ken Jackson

It was easy for Celebration’s Natalie Benetti to find the winning score at the Orange Belt Conference meet.

OBC title highlight of a good season
By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer
It was Natalie Benetti’s favorite season on the golf course.
And that feeling had nothing to do with shooting 77 at Royal St. Cloud Golf Links to win the Orange Belt Conference individual title by 11 shots.
Nor the 81 the junior shot in Lakeland to place second in the District 2A-9 tournament that helped lead her Celebration team to the regional round of the playoffs.
All that made her the Osceola News-Gazette Girls Golfer of the Year, but that didn’t make it fun.
It took a year away from the game for it to be fun for her. After playing for Celebration her freshman year (the year her older sister, Ali Benetti, earned Player of the Year honors), she took last season off after playing nearly non-stop since the age of 5 because of a differing opinion of the game between her and her father, a club professional.
“I wanted to use golf as a tool to get into college,” she said. “I reached a breaking point.”
Sometime last summer, she picked it back up just to have some fun. It stayed fun all year, as she averaged around 39 for nine holes during the high school regular season.
“During this last summer, I started back up because I missed it, and I knew I needed it for college,” she said. “I didn’t expect the world of myself, and I’m glad I picked it back up.
“I had a good time out there for a change. After some maturing I guess I was able to appreciate it for what it is.”
She called her 77 in the OBC championship, “a fun round.”
“It wasn’t the lowest round I’ve had (that’d be a 75), but the girls I played with were awesome, and it helped me relax,” Benetti said. “That definitely had to do with why I played so well that day.”
A relaxed Benetti paid dividends for the Storm team, Coach Robert Mouchet said.
“Natalie’s play was contagious to the other players. It seemed the better she played, the better her teammates were,” he said.
“She’s quiet when she is on the course. All she has to do is give me one look and I know if everything is OK. And I always knew the look that told me I need to check on the other players.”
Benetti said that she’ll keep up a practice schedule this winter, working especially hard on her iron game, as she plans to play some junior tour events this spring.
She’s already looking forward to her senior year with the Storm.
“Just as long as it keeps being fun,” she said.