Freshman Daniel Bennett’s impressive college debut led the No. 11 Texas Longhorns to a second-place finish in Tuesday afternoon’s Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational in Fort Worth.
All five Longhorn participants finished in the top 20, accumulating a team score of 834, a 6-under-par average for the team’s best finish this fall. With Fields by his side, Bennett jumped out to an impressive start to begin the two-day 54-hole tournament.
“You (don’t) expect a guy just to jump out there and do that right off the bat; lead going into the last day,” Fields said. “That’s something that Jordan Spieth did, that’s something that Brandon Stone did, so he’s in good company.”
During round one’s back nine, Bennett shot 31, four-under-par to propel him to the tournament’s top spot on the leaderboard. A solid performance in the second round gave Bennett a day one final score of 65 and five-under-par, tied for first place in the tournament.
Heading into round three, Bennett was unable to capture the same fiery success, struggling on the front nine, shooting two over par. On the back nine, Bennett broke an even par on the majority of his holes to give himself a score of 34 and a one-over-par average.
“He hit a lot of good shots, maybe a couple of things happened … yesterday went the opposite direction,” Fields said. “But that’s golf, that’s just something you have to deal with.”
Carried by his day-one success, Bennett, in his debut for Texas, ended with a five-under-par average with a final score of 205, finishing the tournament tied for third place with Oklahoma’s Drew Goodman and Auburn’s Billy Davis.
The star junior duo of Christiaan Maas, a South African product, and Tommy Morrison each had a rough tournament. Even with stronger showings in the second round, the pair each landed outside of the top 10, with Morrison tied for 11th and Maas tied for 14th.
Junior Luke Potter had a solid first 36 holes, shooting three under par. Tied for fifth place heading into round three, Potter had a dismal double bogey on hole five and two bogeys on early holes on the back nine, ending round three six over par.
Both Potter and sophomore Jack Gilbert ended the tournament tied for 19th place with an identical score of 213 for a two over par.
“I think we’ve got several guys on our team capable of winning and that’s the kind of team that you want,” Fields said. “You have a chance to win golf tournaments.”
Despite his successes, Bennett never lost composure throughout his 54 holes of golfing, a testament to his natural talent and drive that brought him to Texas in the first place.
“(Bennett) came to Texas with a very good resume, he’s the number one junior and number one amateur in South Africa,” Fields said. “That’s reminiscent of three other guys that have played for us.”
Texas will return to the course for their final action of the fall slate next Tuesday for the NB3 Matchplay tournament at Twin Warriors Golf Course in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.
