AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Sam Bennett was exhausted, and he might be more exhausted soon.
This morning, a day after he played more than 29 holes at the Masters, Bennett has an 8:30 tee time in the Aggie Invitational, Texas A&M’s home tournament. He said he wants to play, even if the abrupt turnaround is more than a little absurd. There are precious few college starts left, and he is trying to push his team on an NCAA Championship run while also looking to gain professional golf status through PGA Tour University, where Bennett ranked No. 6 coming into the week.
He apparently will carry his own bag, for 36 holes in one day, going up against college players. He won’t be competing alongside Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Collin Morikawa – Bennett played with each of them at Augusta – but instead is scheduled to play alongside Baylor’s Johnny Keefer and Louisville’s Max Kennedy, the 104th- and 198th-ranked amateurs in the world, respectively.
“I came back to school to be with my team and do that, so I think I want to play,” Bennett said.
But before he considered rallying his beaten and battered body, Bennett relished one more moment in the dazzling Georgia sun that fought its way through brutal cold in time for a sparkling Sunday afternoon.
Standing in Easter pink, Bennett attempted to process it all. He had opened with back-to-back 68s, recording only one bogey in his first 36 holes. He earned his way into the final threesome of Saturday and honestly thought he had a shot to do something that no amateur has ever done before – win the Masters. When his college coach and caddie, Brian Kortan, was asked what the most far-fetched scenario was for Bennett coming into the tournament, he answered quickly: “This is it.”
As many thought it would, the stellar play didn’t continue. Bennett bogeyed his first two holes on Saturday and faltered to a 4-over 76 that took him out of contention. And then the goal became to finish in the top 12, which would have guaranteed him a spot in next year’s Masters. Bennett grinded, his legs becoming worn down from the treacherous walk around Augusta National. He needed to finish at 4-under 284 to make it. Bennett shot 74 and missed that mark by two strokes.
His lack of length off the tee had become more exposed, his physical shape unable to hold up to the rigors of major-championship golf. Bennett needs to spend more time in the gym, he conceded. A tie for 16th – the first top-20 finish by an amateur in the Masters since Ryan Moore in 2005 – would have earned him $306,000 if he were a professional. He didn’t get that paycheck, although the exposure surely will help his already substantial NIL deals with Ping, Johnnie-O, Suncast and Veritex Bank. Some estimates have his impending Masters-influenced NIL deals reaching seven figures.
If you look beyond the surface – and we know that is a lot to do in the world in which we live – you will see a young man trying to transform trauma.
Regardless of money or where he finished, Bennett’s unhurried Texas drawl exuded nothing but gratitude for the scene he just experienced. He had watched the Masters his entire life and dreamed of being on that stage. And when it finally came to a close, Bennett almost couldn’t conceive how quickly everything occurred.
Moments after the patrons bathed him in a passionate standing ovation and he wiped the tears off his face, Bennett’s baptism was over.
“I’m going to need some time when I get back to decompress and really look back and enjoy it,” Bennett said. “I haven’t had kids yet, so that walk up 18 was definitely the coolest experience of my life.”
In his Friday press conference, Bennett beamed with confidence – some may call it cockiness or borderline arrogance – that plays a core part of who Bennett is.
Bennett, quite famously now, lost his father, Mark, in 2021 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s. The story has been told countless times, including in Global Golf Post. On Bennett’s left arm are his father’s final wishes for his son: “Don’t wait to do something.”
It’s a great story, Bennett knows, but the 23-year-old fifth-year college senior often has been reluctant to talk about it in his college career. When we reached out for an interview request last year, Bennett would talk only under the condition that there were no questions about his father. He just wanted the conversation to be about golf. It wasn’t necessarily because Bennett wanted to move on – the agony of losing his father will be with him, forever – but he needed to focus completely on fulfilling his golf destiny. His dad didn’t care whether his son shot 80, Bennett said, but he did care about his son being a gentleman with a life purpose. Bennett has desired to go after that with every bone in his body, carving an identity deeper than the pain of losing a best friend.
In that pursuit, Bennett has played golf with razor-sharp elbows. Not everyone likes it. On his way to winning the U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey, Bennett figuratively beat his chest by telling reporters that he was “the dog in this race” because of his lofty world ranking in relation to his competition. At Augusta, Bennett claimed that he wouldn’t be nervous over the weekend because the hard part was over. Ridgewood was easier than Augusta National, he insisted, and he had all the shots necessary to win here.
Golfers are supposed to be fickle and humble, tuning out any distractions. Bennett embraced the distraction. On Thursday night, he was up on his phone until midnight answering direct messages on Instagram. In his house full of family and friends, Bennett watched “Live From the Masters” on Golf Channel. On Saturday night, he went to Five Guys for a hamburger. A day earlier, he had gone to Dick’s Sporting Goods to get some cold-weather clothes.
Did people recognize him? Yes, he said with a sense of surprise in his voice. They will especially recognize him now in Aggieland, where the First Methodist Church of College Station had an Easter note for all to see: “God Bless Jesus & Sam Bennett.”
“From growing up as a kid watching this tournament to losing my dad to the struggles I've faced and still face to be able to walk up that green on 18 on a Sunday, Easter Sunday, and just be appreciative of everything, I thought – I mean, if you had told me I was going to be here when I was a kid, I would have thought you were crazy,” he said.
From early in his first round through the final putt, Bennett would stare incessantly at leaderboards. His name was on it for most of the tournament – it’s tradition for the U.S. Am winner to start with his name on the leaderboard – and he wanted to see it. When we asked Bennett why he did that, he tried to explain that he just liked the look of the old-school leaderboards.
We’re not sure we believe him, but it doesn’t matter. Bennett’s vast self-belief carried him here. The tournament started with flowery talk of how Gordon Sargent, the top-ranked amateur in the world, could devour Augusta National’s par-5s because of his outrageous ball speed. But Sargent and his aesthetically pleasing swing, after an opening birdie, fell apart immediately.
In stepped Bennett, the flagstick-thin kid with an awkward-looking swing. He has heard everything about his golf game – that his back will one day give out; that he does not hit the ball far enough; that his self-taught approach will catch up to him; that growing up on a hard-scrabble muni without country-club advantages will hinder him; that his bravado is a little too in-your-face for an undefeated game such as golf – but he doesn’t concern himself with those notions.
He built a golf identity around what he wants, which is what his dad wanted for him: to believe endlessly, whatever that means.
It brought him down Magnolia Lane, and it brought him to a historic, memorable performance.
And if his legs don’t fall straight off from another marathon day of golf, it will bring him back.
E-MAIL SEAN
Top: Sam Bennett
Andrew Redington, getty images