Sam Bennett has been the biggest suprise of the 2023 Masters Tournament. The amateur player from Madisonville, Texas, sits currently on second place of the leaderboard (-8) just behind Brooks Koepka (-12).
By 2017, Sam Bennett was already a huge prospect after winning the state championship. Then, he became a star at the college level playing for Texas A&M. SEC Player of the Year in 2022 and really close of taking home the Fred Haskins award as the best golfer in the entire nation. He was ready to shock the world.
On August of 2022, Sam Bennett won the U.S. Amateur Championship at Ridgewood Country Club and clinched an invitation to play in the 2023 Masters Tournament. Now, in an unbelievable story, he suddenly finds himself with a shot at the green jacket. Read here to find out if any amateur player has ever won the Masters.
Has an amateur player ever won the Masters Tournament?
No amateur player has ever won the Masters Tournament. Throughout the history of the first major championship of the year, the best finish for an amateur was second-place for Ken Venturi in 1956. That was a heartbreaking moment.
Ken Venturi led after each of the first three rounds of the 1956 Masters Tournament, but had a tremendous collapse in the final round. He shot 8-over (80) and Jack Burk Jr was the champion. Burk Jr was eight shots back of Venturi. Though Frank Stranahan (1947) and Charlie Coe (1961) also reached a second place, Venturi is the only one to do it solo in the leaderboard.
Since 1958, no amateur player had been solo in second place after 36-holes at the Masters Tournament. That’s why Sam Bennett is making history in the 2023 edition. If he makes it all the way to the top during the weekend, the 23-year old would become the first amateur ever to win at Augusta.