By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The best golfer Baylor has ever had never even competed for the green and gold.
Professional golfer and PGA tour veteran Ben Crane has accumulated five tour wins, including the 2014 FedEx St. Jude’s Classic, over his 23-year career on the tour. The Portland, Ore., native is best known throughout college golf for his time playing for the University of Oregon, but is now reflecting upon his first year of college spent down in Waco.
“Texas has obviously produced tons of PGA Tour golfers,” Crane said. “Growing up in Oregon and wanting to do this professionally, I just thought that making it down to Texas, where I could play year-round, would be great.”
Crane came to the Bears as a redshirt for the 1994-95 season. While he did not see a tee box at any competitive event throughout his year in Texas, the now-tenured professional is one of the best golfers Baylor has ever produced.
When Crane came to the program in 1994, the landscape of golf in Waco was not as well-maintained as it has been in recent years.
“My brother went to Baylor a year before me and he just absolutely loved the school,” Crane said. “I went down there to visit him and met the coach, and he offered me to come play for Baylor.”
Crane came to Baylor at the close of then-head coach Gene Shields’ career, which affected Crane’s experience in his redshirt season. Looking for an opportunity to grow and develop his game, Crane turned toward his teammates.
“My coach was getting ready to retire at the end of the year,” Crane said. “But the guys on the team were really bought in, and that was huge to me.”
Crane remains involved in the Baylor golf sphere, as he and current men’s head coach Mike McGraw have collaborate on encouraging Christian fellowship among younger golfers in their journey to the Tour.
“If McGraw was the coach when I was at Baylor, I never in a million years would’ve transferred,” Crane said. “The school was great, I loved the town, I loved going to Vitek’s and crushing Gut Paks all the time. If I had gotten a coaching experience [that McGraw] provides those kids with, I never would have left.”
Crane has hosted groups of young adult golfers at his home as part of a College Golf Fellowship retreat that McGraw leads every year.
“What McGraw does is he turns his athletes into Godly men,” Crane said. “I love spending time with him whenever I can, but I know for a fact we’re going to hang out a lot in heaven when we both get there.”
Baylor golf alum Johnny Keefer recently made it off the Korn Ferry Tour, the qualifying tour for the PGA, and earned his official PGA Tour card. Keefer’s recent success has Crane reflecting on not just his time in Waco, but also his experience coming up as a young player on the tour.
“People always ask when I knew I was good enough to make the tour, but … you don’t know until you finally make it,” Crane said.
The Portland native was introduced to golf by his grandfather when he was five years old, and grew up playing the Portland Golf Club course.
“Every putt I hit on the putting green late at night as a kid, I was there dreaming I was doing something great as a PGA golfer,” Crane said. “That feeling when I actually made [the Tour] was that I couldn’t actually believe that I had achieved the dream I had had since I was a little kid.”
Crane said that if he could give any advice to Keefer as a young golfer coming out of Baylor, it would be to find someone to look up to. When Crane was coming onto the tour, he found a mentor in longtime PGA veteran Chris DiMarco.
“Chris told me to just be me,” Crane said. “That’s the advice I would want to give Johnny Keefer if I could. Just let him know that there’s a lot of things that make you unique as a golfer and to just find what that is for him and be comfortable in it.”
Crane’s unique thing he was able to find for himself was making YouTube videos to have fun on tour. His progression of videos led to the famous “Golf Boys” video that starred alongside Crane, Oklahoma State alum Rickie Fowler and two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson.
“All those guys approached me about doing a video together, and so we became the Golf Boys,” Crane said. “When it blew up, I just remember Bubba saying ‘We’re breaking barriers, we’re breaking barriers!’ because the PGA was much more uptight at the time.”
While only at Baylor for a year, Crane ranks among the greatest golfers to come through the banks of the Brazos.
“It’s very cool and flattering to get to be considered in that category,” Crane said. “I’m very thankful to have been a Bear, and I do have school pride. My brother and his wife graduated from Baylor, and when it comes to the golf program, there’s not many people who are bigger Coach McGraw fans than me. Even though it was only just one year, I have very fond memories of being there.”
