GMC Golfers Become Bobcats
By MATTHEW BROWN
With plenty of national championship playing experience in their bags, two members of the Georgia Military College men’s golf team are transferring just a few blocks away in Milledgeville to Georgia College and the Bobcat NCAA Division II program.
And one of them, Lurner “Browning” Benton, is from Monticello. He is pictured above with his family including (left to right) sister Beth, mom Stacy, niece Taylor, brother Banks, father Chip, niece Olivia, grandmother Nancy, and brother-in-law Hadley.
Austin Quillian played three years for the Bulldogs, one being an additional season granted for the lost 2020 golf season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His first year – in fact his first tournament as a collegian – resulted in an NJCAA Division III team national championship in 2019. Quillian returned to the national tournament with the Bulldogs two more times, and each time GMC came in second place.
In all three seasons Quillian played, he made NJCAA All-American. He’s also made NJCAA All-Academic Second Team as the entire Bulldog team was an NJCAA All-Academic Team of the Year.
A big part of those two runner-up finishes was Lurner Benton, of Monticello, who came to GMC after his high school career at Gatewood. Benton almost started that career as a state low-medalist when he was an eighth grader, but that event turned into a lesson in rules and how to shake off adversity.
Benton is a two-time NJCAA All-American. He carded the third lowest individual round, a 68, in NJCAA Division III nationals history in 2021, and he was low medalist for the 2022 GACC tournament.
They were recruited to GMC by former golf coach Charles Van Horn III – now head coach at Newberry College in South Carolina – who was at Thursday’s ceremony for his former players. They will now play for Jimmy Wilson at Georgia College, and Wilson also knows about going to national championships – nine times in all – in more than two decades leading the Bobcat program.
“That’s what you come to GMC for,” said athletic director Rob Manchester. “Create opportunities and move on to somewhere bigger.
“These guys did a heck of a job. Represented GMC well. These guys kind of had an unprecedented career here.”
Quillian is originally from McDonough but now resides in Eatonton. He was considering Georgia College while still in high school, but it didn’t work out at that time and he instead enrolled at GMC.
“Luckily, I did well enough over the past few years to get the opportunity to play at Georgia College,” he said. “(Milledgeville’s) kind of become home to me. Once I got the offer I really didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
At the ceremony, Quillian was coming off an appearance at the Georgia Amateur Championships where he fired a second-round 68 at the Landings Club – Deer Creek in Savannah. Being a national champion with the Bulldogs is that one experience he’ll hold the rest of his life.
“I’m always going to have the national championship ring,” said Quillian. “It was kind of a weird year because I came in halfway through the season. Coach Van Horn thinking about not playing me to save a year of eligibility.”
However, a Bulldog teammate came down with an illness prior to nationals in 2019, and the only alternate was Quillian. It’s his first time playing a college tournament and the championship is on the line.
“The nerves kind of got the best of me,” said Quillian about round one. There would be three more rounds, though. “I was able to put together some decent rounds. It definitely helped me lead the guys the next two years.”
There was no national tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic, and student-athletes who were in college for 2019-2020 earned an extra year of eligibility where they played. It was Quillian’s decision to give GMC one more year after the 2021 season because he had no other options to play.
“I only get one opportunity to play college golf,” he said. “I had an opportunity here (in 2022). I felt like I owed it to the guys to come back and help lead the team to another national championship. That was the biggest thing: I wanted to win the national championship. We ultimately fell short, but it worked out.
“(At Georgia College) I just want to grow as a golfer, as an athlete, as a student. The goal is to get better at what I’m doing. Play well in tournaments and hopefully make a regional appearance, maybe make a national championship.”
Quillian is undecided between marketing and management as his major academic subject.
Benton first took up golf at age 15 and was an All-State eighth grader, subtly mentioning a two-stroke penalty that cost him low GISA medalist that season. He’s also overcome some health issues like a broken wrist that cut into his high school career. COVID-19 also cut his senior high school season short. But he came back to win his home golf course club championship twice.
Benton attended Ole Miss for one semester but then made the decision to join GMC. With Van Horn as his coach, he played in eight tournaments in the spring of 2021 including the NJCAA Division III nationals.
“We traveled to Illinois, North Carolina twice, all over the place for tournaments,” said Benton.
After the 2022 season, Benton had offers to Georgia College and Peach Belt Conference rival Clayton State, choosing the Bobcats.
What about that two-stroke penalty? He explains there was a claim that he grounded his club in a bunker. He was trying to figure out who saw him do this, for one player in his group was about 100 yards away. This player was the one to benefit from the penalty and win low medalist by two strokes.
“I would have been the youngest to ever win it,” said Benton. “But you have downfalls like that. You win some, you lose some. Without a doubt (a learning experience).
“I’d only been playing golf for a year. Made All-State. I couldn’t complain about it too much.”
Flash forward to GMC and that 68 at nationals in New York as a freshman. In his sophomore year, the GACC championship played in Tennille was his first tournament win, and he opened that event with a round of 69, the only sub-par round of any golfer.
“Our team (in 2021) was a very good team,” said Benton. “We had five guys who could go out there and play really well.”
That team came in second place nationally by one shot. For his round of 68, Benton eagled two of the first three holes with a bogey on the third. It was par next, then birdie, three more bogies and two more birdies. He would come in eight place overall after four rounds, and all five of those Bulldogs were All-Americans, a Division III record.
“When I get to play in tournaments, hopefully I will represent Georgia College, GMC and my past schools very well,” said Benton, a business major, about his Bobcat goals. “A team goal of mine is to make it to the national championship this year. That’s everybody’s goal for NCAA golf. With (Coach Wilson’s) recruiting, bringing in a lot more new guys and he’s got a lot of guys with experience, we should be able to get a good run, definitely get into it and see where it takes us.”
