Ben Maffitt Named 2022 Distinguished Service Award Recipient

 

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (January 20, 2022) – The CGA conducts over 300 tournaments and provides course ratings in addition to a host of other services. With these numerous services, we rely heavily on the help of volunteers throughout the Carolinas. Every year we award a volunteer or group whose devotion to golf in the Carolinas stands out amongst over 300 volunteers with the Charles E. Lynch, Jr. Distinguished Service Award. This year, Ben Maffitt earned the 2022 honor.
 

“I am totally humbled by this award,” said Maffitt. “It is a great honor for me and I am so appreciative to the CGA for recognizing me for this.”
 

Ben Maffitt is a member of the Carolina Golf Club in Charlotte, NC and the Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, SC. He was born and raised in Charlotte, NC.

 

He was educated in the Charlotte public school system and earned a degree in Business Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy and served for three years on active duty. After his military service, he returned to UNC where he earned a Master’s in Business Administration.

 

He then spent 25 years in the banking industry, primarily with First Union Bank. After taking early retirement from First Union, Ben did consulting work with major financial institutions across the United States and Canada for 10 years.

 

Ben began playing competitive golf at the age of 15 in 1963. In 1966, he qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur championship, played in Whittier, California. While an undergraduate at Chapel Hill, he was member of the UNC golf team for three years.

 

He and his wife, Ginny, originally from Wilmington, Delaware, have two children, both boys and three grandchildren. They have been married for 51 years.

 

Ben first volunteered to help CGA in 2004 as a course rater. Over a period of 12 years, he rated every course in North Carolina within fifty miles of Charlotte, some of which he rated as many as three times. In 2010 after encouragement from the late Michael Dann, Ben began volunteering to help CGA as a rules official. In 2014, he scored high enough on the USGA rules exam to achieve “Expert” status. He has continued to maintain that status with every exam taken in the past 8 years.

 

In 2018, Ben served as Co-Chairman of the USGA Mid-Amateur Championship in Charlotte, hosted by Charlotte Country Club and Carolina Golf Club (as companion course). The championship was completed in exceptional fashion despite having to contend with the side effects of Florence, a category four hurricane, which hit the Carolinas coast and moved inland across the Piedmont 5 days before the start of the Mid-Amateur Championship. 

 

In addition to volunteering with the CGA, Maffitt volunteers as a rules official with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, Peggy Kirk Bell Junior Girls, AJGA, and numerous collegiate events each year.

 

Outside his golf related volunteer work, Maffitt has served in the past as a board member and board Chairperson of the Atlanta Partnership of Business and Education, Renaissance Capital of Atlanta, KinderMourn of Charlotte, NC, and for 11 years as board member and Treasurer of the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte. Over the past 10 years, he has continued to serve on the Finance Committee at the Levine Museum.

 

Maffitt and his wife Ginny have two sons, three grandchildren, and have been happily married for over 51 years.
 

About the Charles E. Lynch, Jr. Distinguished Service Award

The Carolinas Golf Association established the Charles E. Lynch, Jr. Distinguished Service Award at its 2016 Annual Meeting. Mr. Lynch began his service to the CGA in 1977 becoming its legal counsel and board member. Since then he has contributed countless hours of insight and advice to help mold one of the largest golf associations in the country. He has gone above and beyond the call as a CGA volunteer, executive committee member, and legal counsel. This award will honor an individual or group whose actions have done just that.
 

Past Charles E. Lynch, Jr. Distinguished Service Award Recipients:

2016 – Charles E. Lynch, Jr.

2017 – Ellen Shulby

2018 – Joyce Wittman

2019 – Ben Payne

2020 – Larry McWane

2021 – Dan O’Connell