Samuel Bennett (born December 21, 1999) is an American professional golfer from

Madisonville, Texas Madisonville is a city in Madison County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,420 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Madison County. Both the City of Madisonville and the County of Madison were named for U.S. President James Mad ...

. In 2022, he won the

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

Amateur career

Bennett began playing golf on a public nine-hole course in his native Madisonville. He attended Madisonville High School, where he was a state champion in 2017. Bennett enrolled at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

in 2018. As a junior, he earned All-American honors and represented the American team at the

2021 Arnold Palmer Cup The 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup was a team golf competition held from June 11–13, 2021 at Rich Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Illinois. It was the 25th time the event had been contested and the fourth under the new format in which women golfers played ...

. He was the SEC Player of the Year as a senior in 2022 and was a finalist for the Fred Haskins Award, given to the most outstanding collegiate golfer in the country. He again was named to the

2022 Arnold Palmer Cup The 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup was a team golf competition to be held from 1–3 July 2022 at Golf Club de Genève, Vandœuvres, Switzerland. It was the 26th time the event had been contested and the fifth under the new format in which women golfers p ...

team and set a school record for lowest scoring average. Bennett advanced to the final of the U.S. Amateur in August 2022 at

Ridgewood Country Club The Ridgewood Country Club (RCC) is a country club located in Paramus, New Jersey, a suburb northwest of New York City in Bergen County. It was founded in 1890 in neighboring Ho-Ho-Kus, but has been at its current location since 1926. Its facilit ...

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

. He defeated Ben Carr, 1 up, to become the first U.S. Amateur champion in Texas A&M history. The win earned Bennett exemptions into the

2023 Masters Tournament The 2023 Masters Tournament was the 87th edition of the Masters Tournament and the first of the men's four major golf championships held in 2023. The tournament was played from April 6–9 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, Unit ...

and

2023 Open Championship The 2023 Open Championship, officially the 151st Open Championship, was a golf tournament played from 20–23 July 2023 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, Merseyside, England. This was the 13th time that The Open was played at Royal Liverp ...

. Bennett qualified for the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club and made the cut, finishing in a tie for 49th place. He played his first PGA Tour event at the

Valero Texas Open The Texas Open, known as the Valero Texas Open for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played near San Antonio, Texas. It dates back years to 1922, when it was first called the Texas Open; San Antonio-based Va ...

in 2021, missing the cut. He also played in the

Arnold Palmer Invitational The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando, Florida ...

in March 2022. At the 2023 Masters, Bennett opened with a bogey-free round of 68 (−4), the first by an amateur in 30 years. He shot another 68 in the second round and became the first amateur since 2003 to be inside the top three on the leaderboard through 36 holes. He was also the first amateur to shoot two rounds in the 60s at the Masters since

Charles Coe Charles Robert Coe (October 26, 1923 – May 16, 2001) was an American amateur golfer who is considered by many to be one of the greatest American amateurs in history. A two-time U.S. Amateur winner, Coe never turned professional either becau ...

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

. His 36-hole score of 136 (−8) was the lowest by an amateur since

Ken Venturi Kenneth Paul Venturi (May 15, 1931May 17, 2013) was an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. In a career shortened by injuries, he won 14 events on the PGA Tour including a major, the U.S. Open in 1964. Shortly before his death in 2 ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

. Bennett shot 76 in the third round to fall to seventh place, becoming the first amateur to be inside the top 10 going into the final round since

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

. He finished tied for 16th after a two-over 74 in the final round, the best Masters finish by an amateur since Ryan Moore in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

Professional career

Bennett turned professional in May 2023 following the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship. By finishing fifth in the PGA Tour University rankings, he will be fully exempt on the

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

Personal life

Bennett is the son of Mark and Stacey Bennett. When his father was 45, he was diagnosed with

early onset Alzheimer's Early-onset Alzheimer's disease, also called younger-onset Alzheimer's, is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed before the age of 65. It is an uncommon form of Alzheimer's, accounting for only 5–10% of all Alzheimer's cases. About 60% have a positive ...

. He died in 2021. The last thing he wrote to his son, in June 2020, was a short note saying, "Don't wait to do something". After his father died, Bennett took the note to a

tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via a ...

, and had them tattoo the note, in the style of his father's handwriting, on his left forearm.

Amateur wins

*2021 Cabo Collegiate at TPC San Antonio, Old Waverly Collegiate, The Aggie Invitational, Sprint International Amateur Championship *2022 Louisiana Classics,

*2023 John Burns Intercollegiate Source:

Results in major championships

"T" indicates a tie for a place
LA = Low amateur

U.S. national team appearances

Arnold Palmer Cup The Arnold Palmer Cup is an annual team golf competition for college/university golfers. From 2018 it has been contested between a United States team and an International team representing the rest of the world. The teams consist of 12 men and 12 ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

Source:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Sam American male golfers Texas A&M Aggies men's golfers Golfers from Texas People from Madisonville, Texas 1999 births Living people