AUGUSTA, Ga. — If there was any question about how legitimate Sam Bennett’s impressive debut at the Masters Tournament was, the Texas A&M senior answered it quickly Friday at Augusta National Golf Club.
The U.S. Amateur champion birdied the first hole for the second day in a row and put together another immaculate round of 68 as he closed out a weather-shortened Friday at 8 under in third place — earning an invitation to speak in the Interview Room.
Bennett had never heard of the late Ken Venturi until this week, but the 23-year-old’s score of 136 over the first two rounds was just a shot off Venturi’s amateur record set in 1956, when he finished second to Jack Burke Jr.
“Everybody coming into the week was, ‘I hope you get low (amateur).’ That’s pretty much all they were saying. I just wanted to put two good rounds up. I knew my golf was good enough to compete out here,” said Bennett, who is No. 6 in the world amateur ranking. “I found myself in a situation that now I’ve got a golf tournament that I can go out and win.”
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Bennett was laser-focused once again and followed his bogey-free first round by playing the first perfectly, lacing an approach to 14 feet and rolling in the birdie putt.
He showed he was human on the par-3 fourth, making his first, and only, bogey of the tournament so far as he missed the green and failed to get up and down. But he rallied on the par-5 8th, with a precise chip from the front of the green to a foot for a kick-in birdie. He followed with another birdie on No. 9, dialing in one to two feet with a stellar approach.
He laid up on No. 13 and knocked another wedge to five feet and converted the birdie putt, before hitting another great shot into the par-4 14th, and making his longest putt of the day, from 22 feet, for his final birdie.
Texas A&M golf coach Brian Kortan is on the bag for Bennett, just like he was for the U.S. Amateur win at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey last August. He said Bennett had an array of impressive shots once again Friday.
“The first tee shot, getting that one out of the way was big, and they were all impressive,” Kortan said. “Those little wedge shots on No. 13 and No. 15 that everyone thinks are just little automatic shots, and those are tough little shots, but there’s a lot of nerve-wracking stuff out there.
“When his head is down and he’s not seeing everything around him and just plays golf,…
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