Ben Carr to play in Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship

Columbus High School’s Ben Carr has shown off his ability on a golf course numerous times in the past. Now he has another chance to do so on a big stage.

Carr, a junior at Columbus, will compete in the second annual Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championships in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The three-day tournament begins Feb. 24 at TPC Myrtle Beach, which Golf Digest named one of “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses”.

The tournament will feature 104 competitors from 19 states and five different countries.

Carr is no stranger to big moments. Last June, he qualified for the 69th U.S. Junior Amateur. It was part of a busy year for Carr, as he also finished tied for ninth in the Junior North & South Amateur and tied for 10th in the Golfweek International Junior Invitational.

Those showings were strong follow ups to Carr’s standout spring with the Blue Devils. Columbus won the region tournament by 15 shots then the state tournament by 14 strokes in part due to Carr, who finished in the Top 10 of the latter tournament with a 72.

Carr and the other Blue Devils will be back in action on March 17-18 at the Georgia-South Carolina Challenge Cup in Duncan, S.C.

Carr, who has verbally committed to N.C. State, will enter Friday’s tournament ranked 489th, according to the AJGA Polo rankings.

Carr will have plenty of competition in the tournament. Among the participants is Trent Phillips, the No. 1 junior in South Carolina and the 27th-ranked male golfer in the latest AJGA Polo standings. Twenty of the golfers in the field already have signed National Letters of Intent for the upcoming fall.

The impressive nature of this year’s field is one that was highly sought after by Johnson, who took over the No. 1 spot in the world golf rankings on Feb. 19.

“Dustin’s goal when we launched this tournament was to make it one of the premier events on the junior golf calendar,” said Allen Terrell, the director of coaching and managing partner of the Dustin Johnson Golf School. “We’ve taken another big step toward that goal this year, enhancing the quality of the field, and we will again deliver on the experiential side as well. Dustin is thrilled with where the tournament is in Year 2, and we are as well.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2017 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Ben Carr to play in Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship."