Student golfer impresses at Masters 2023
Masters this year started playing round 1 from the evening of April 6, Hanoi time. Through just two holes, Bennet scored -3. He birdie on hole 1, with a putt from 5.8 meters.
On the par5 2nd hole, Bennett scored an eagle when from near the mouth of the bunker hit the ball on target on his third shot.
On hole 6, Bennett birdie again, this time with a putt from seven yards.
At the end of the 9th hole with a par, he reached -4, thereby, along with the famous players including Ken Venturi, Matt Kuchar and Ben Crenshaw, held a record of 32 strokes for the first half of the round when attending the Masters as amateur (amateur).
The whole match, Bennett kept par 15 holes. Thanks to that form, he became the first amateur to have a no-bogey round on the opening day of the tournament in 30 years.
"When I got on the course, I was nervous, I couldn't sit still, but close to the time I got into the game I got hungover. Now I'm happy with the result. It seems that the more pressure I hit, the better," Bennett said on the Golf Channel.
Every year, the Masters Organizing Committee invites a few amateur golfers to honor this level, because Bobby Jones - the founder of both the Augusta National and the tournament - is also an amateur but holds 13 majors. They only choose the cup holder or the top 2 amateur championships in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and three national tournaments in the US, applicable to the most recent match.
Bennett attended this year's Masters by winning the US Amateur 2022, next to six faces in the same outfit. In this group, only he entered the top 10 after round 1. Bennett's position is even more commendable when he is at T6 with a score of -4 and the top of the table is at -7, belonging to three senior stars - Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland.
Six of Bennett's peers are all outside the top 60, in which Harrison Crowe - the owner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship 2022 - ranks highest, T63 (+3).
Masters history so far has not recorded any amateur wearing the Green Jacket for the champion.
As usual, the whole amateur group will be treated by the Organizing Committee to a dinner party at the beginning of the event week, then sleep one night in the "Crow's Nest" on the 3rd floor of the Augusta National club. There, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw all experienced and later won the Masters.
Bennett had hoped to sleep at the "Crow's Nest," but it only accommodated five people. And in the order of registration, he had to put that wish aside and be allocated a larger room, overlooking the green of hole 18.
Last summer, Bennett was given a full-time card on the US second division Korn Ferry Tour system. However, he gave up that right to return to Texas A&M University to complete his bachelor's degree. This season, Bennet also turned down a few wildcards on the PGA Tour because he didn't want to miss the school's golf schedule.
