Among all the smiles that the Augusta Masters brings, something so beautiful that they sprout alone, there is none more powerful these days than that of Sam Bennett, the boy from Madisonville, a town of 4,000 inhabitants in the state of Texas. “Every day is the best day of my life here,” repeats the 23-year-old amateur who, thanks to his 68s, placed second in the provisional position of the tournament, before the horn announced at 3:07 local time the first of the postponements of the tournament due to an electrical storm and that he listens in the distance while being interviewed by the great golf channel of the country. He lives in a cloud. What he dreamed of since he was “three years old”.
Bennett, not very tall, less than 1.80, an anonymous face Outside the Texas A&M campus, the University that will host Cayetana Fernández, the Spanish talent, from next year, enjoyed an inspired Friday putting and wedges and was four shots behind Brooks Koepka. The total sum of 136 strokes is the second lowest record in history for an amateur player behind what Ken Venturi achieved in 1956, who made 135 and saw his dream cut short at the gates when he gave up a blow to Jack Burke jr. He led the way to the 17th green on the final day and blew a five-shot lead with 9 holes to go.
Win the green jacket?
The purposes of Bennett, who began to play in a field that looked like a cow pasture when he was 9 years old, they are shot. He wants to enjoy. “This is just where I want to be. I love the pressure, I love the nerves, I try to use it to my advantage… I know it’s the Masters, it’s a bigger stage, but I’ve played in front of a lot of people and I love playing when there is a lot at stake. Win the jacket? I think I can. I think I have what it takes to win,” he says without hesitation. Although it is something that nobody has achieved in the 86 previous editions.
But, if it does not happen, it does not mark stages either. Obeying the tattoo that he has on his left forearm, he doesn’t wait to do anything. That legend “Do not wait to do something” is the memory of his father, who died in June 2021 after living with acute Alzheimer’s for seven years in which he did not recognize his son or showed up every days at the dentist.
He came to lose speech. But before doing so she uttered those words in the summer of 2020 and Sam suggested to his mom that she try to get him to write that sentence. It took her 15 minutes because she had to reteach him how to write letter by letter, but she succeeded and, just as they are unraveled on her skin, she transferred them to her forearm with the date of creation.
He’s in his last year of college, a fifth that he has expanded, according to his coach Kortan, “to be more mature and thus better understand what he is going to face”. At a time when the incubator has accelerated with fabulous-looking golfers coming from American golf centers: Hovland, Wolff, Morikawa… you will have a lot of competition.
