After college golf, Kayla Benge keeps on playing

Kayla Benge wouldn’t be quite whole without golf. It ties too heavily into her Indiana upbringing for her to ever give up competing.

“I think it’s more or less the fact that I feel very close to my family when I’m on the golf course,” Benge said, “because of all these memories we’ve shared since I was 2 or 3. It’s kind of that feeling of closeness with my family and the sport and how important golf has been in my life.”

At 24, Benge, of Plainfield, Indiana, was the oldest player in the field at the Hoosier Women’s Amateur and finished in the top 15. After competing four seasons for Xavier and transferring to North Carolina Asheville in 2022 for a fifth year, she’s now in among a small group of women to remain both amateur and highly competitive post-college golf.

Benge played the Hoosier Am on the heels of a fifth-place finish in the Indiana Women’s Amateur last month, where she was the defending champion, and a runner-up finish at the Indiana Women’s Open in June. In May, she attempted to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time. She opened the 36-hole qualifier in St. Louis with a 75, which landed her in a share of third, and battled weather with the rest of the field in the second round before falling out of contention for the sole qualifying spot.

“For me to be that close in one round, it was obvious to me that if I was on my game, I had the opportunity to qualify,” she said.

In many of her summer events, Benge felt she was in a position to win, but never felt like her game was sharp enough to get it done. That begs the question of whether a professional career is still in the cards. She says it’s something she has considered, and it isn’t off the table yet. But pro golf being one of very few sports with a variable income and fixed costs, turning pro comes down to something of a business decision.

“Turning pro is something that I’ve always wanted to do but it’s something that I need to have more knowledge about before I do it,” she said, “because to turn pro to just pro is one thing, but I just love to compete. So for me, if all I’m concerned about right now is just competing and enjoying playing the sport that I grew up playing, I don’t really care all that much about making money while doing it.”

Kayla Benge with her dad, Curt, at the 2024 Hoosier Women’s Amateur. (Photo: Landon Ringler/Golfweek)

Benge largely competes around the Midwest, in tournaments she can reach by car instead…