Bennett, who’s a senior at Texas A&M, noticed his dream play out on a countrywide level.
MADISONVILLE, Texas — In seventh or eighth grade, Sam Bennett had an task for his artwork magnificence.
The scholars had been requested to color their dream. Bennett knew his already: The twelfth gap at Augusta National Golf Club, possibly essentially the most well-known Par 3 in essentially the most well-known three-hole stretch of golfing on the earth, “Amen Corner.”
“And he said, ‘I’m going to play in The Masters,’” his mom, Stacy Bennett, mentioned. “He was probably 12 or 13. And I was like, ‘OK.’ He’s like, ‘No, I’m serious.’ Like, he got mad. ‘No, I’m serious.’”
The Texas A&M golfer final summer season gained the U.S. Amateur, punching his price tag to The Masters this yr. He made rather the influence in Augusta final week, taking part in his method into the overall crew in Saturday’s 3rd around and in the end, completing in a tie for sixteenth, at two-under.
Bennett, who’s a senior at Texas A&M, noticed his dream play out on a countrywide level. But the dream began in Madisonville, a the city of about 4,400 between Houston and Dallas, tucked into the beltline of Texas.
“Small-town America,” said Jerry Hopkins, Bennett’s high school golf coach. “People know each other.”
And all of them know Bennett, probably the most most sensible beginner golfers on the earth.
Bennett’s adventure began on the Fannin Oaks Golf Course, previously the Oak Ridge Golf Club, a nine-hole monitor the place a brief white fence is all that distinguishes the tough from the pony pasture.
“Country club. A club in the country,” Stacy Bennett explained. “There’s nothing fancy about it.”
It used to be house at the vary for Stacy, an English trainer on the junior highschool, and her husband Mark, the city dentist.
“My boys are great men because their father was a great man,” Stacy Bennett mentioned.
Stacy and Mark had been born and raised in Madisonville. Their households had been (and are) pillars of the neighborhood. They met within the milk line in basic faculty and turned into buddies. They reconnected after school and returned house to lift their 3 boys, Marcus, Jake and Sam.
“[Sam] may be little,” Stacy Bennett mentioned, “like a little chihuahua. But he’s got a bulldog spirit. And he has always been like that.”
Although his father taught him the fundamentals of golfing, Sam is most commonly self-taught.
Nevertheless, just like the azaleas in April, Sam blossomed into a celebrity for Madisonville High School and gained the Class 4A state name his senior yr.
Following within the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Mac, Sam turned into an Aggie and dedicated to Texas A&M for varsity.
But in June 2021, Sam misplaced his father to early onset Alzheimer’s.
Mark used to be simply 53 years previous.
“And it took a good man away from us,” Stacy Bennett mentioned. “Way too early.”
Mark’s ultimate written phrases had been a message to Sam: “Don’t wait to do something.”
Before his father gave up the ghost, Sam had the phrases tattooed on his left forearm.
Sam’s mother, Stacy, were given a tattoo of her personal, on her proper wrist.
“It says, ‘until we meet again. M.L.B,’ Mark’s initials.”
In the wake of his father’s loss of life, golfing turned into Sam’s convenience zone.
“That was his way of getting out there and thinking, ‘I have no control over my dad and this disease. But by God, I know how to control my golf game. And I know how to control this little white ball.’”
In August, he gained the U.S. Amateur, incomes him an beginner spot within the 2023 Masters.
“I say it every time I’m gripping the club. It’s right there. ‘Don’t wait to do something.’”
With his father’s directions revealed on his lead arm, Sam didn’t wait one 2nd, carding the bottom first-round rating by way of an beginner in a Masters debut since 1956.
“He didn’t go just to have fun and sight-see,” Stacy Bennett mentioned. “He wanted to win.”
Sam went shot for shot with one of the most sport’s very best. His first around rating of four-under equaled protecting champion Scottie Scheffler and his 36-hole rating of eight-under put him in solo 3rd heading into the overall two rounds.
“I had three screens going,” Hopkins mentioned. “Because I’m gonna [sic] see every shot.”
Fatigue in the end crept in, because it does for many at Augusta. Still, Bennett completed the weekend in a tie for sixteenth at two-under.
Bennett authorised the name of low beginner after which flew again house to College Station on Sunday, arriving on the airport past due.
“All the support from Madisonville,” he mentioned. “Everybody made me feel at home and I felt really comfortable out there.”
The entire the city of Madisonville is proud in their local son, for figuring out the dream he painted a decade in the past.
“Yep, dreams do come true,” Stacy Bennett mentioned. “They do.”
Sam’s oldest brother, Marcus, at the side of a lot of different kinfolk and buddies, made the go back and forth to Augusta to look their ‘Sammy Boy’ play Amen Corner on Easter Sunday.
A pair days later, Marcus used to be again on the “country club” in Madisonville, along with his 3-year-old son, Jett. They had been playing the sport in its purest shape, the similar method Mark taught his boys how.
Sam will compete within the U.S. Open this summer season, after which plans to show professional later this yr.
And regardless of the place his adventure leads, something is needless to say: Madisonville will likely be looking at and cheering.
“As you’re leaving Madisonville,” Hopkins mentioned, “the big marquee on the First United Methodist Church, reads, ‘God loves Madisonville … and Sam Bennett.”
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