Bennett Wins Cabo Collegiate, Earns Valero Texas Open Exemption

(Source: Isaiah Alonzo)

By: Brad Marquardt, Assistant AD / Athletics Communications

SAN ANTONIO – Texas A&M junior golfer Sam Bennett used a sizzling 5-under 67 in the final round of Cabo Collegiate to tally his first collegiate victory and earn an exemption to compete in the 2021 Valero Texas Open on Wednesday at the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course.

Bennett, from Madisonville, Texas, will return to San Antonio later this month for the PGA Tour event, which will be contested March 29-April 4 at TPC San Antonio.

“It’s crazy,” said Bennett, who was runner-up at the Valero Junior Texas Open in 2015. “It’s a dream come true. Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to play in a PGA Tour event. It’s hard to not have that thought in your mind as you’re coming down the last couple holes, but it was for sure there.”

Bennett entered the day tied for second and three strokes behind the leader, but he turned in a stellar final round that featured six birdies and just a single bogey. His birdie on the 337-yard, par-4 17th hole gave him a one-stroke advantage over Oklahoma’s Garett Reband and both players earned a par on the final hole to give Bennett the win. For the tournament, Bennett was 5-under par with rounds of 74-70-67.

“It feels good,” Bennett said. “It always feels good to win and in this sport you don’t get too many chances. Unfortunately last week in Laredo (Border Olympics), I had a pretty good chance but I didn’t get the job done. Coach (Brian) Kortan and I talked about it and I learned a lot about what I did wrong and it feels good to come out on top.”

Kortan said, “That guy is super competitive. He’s from a small town, Madisonville, and he played all kinds of sports growing up and didn’t like losing in any of them. He’s a really ultra-competitive guy. He’s had a few chances to win on the big stage in college golf but hadn’t broken through. But he’s learned and he’s matured and today he got his victory.”

As a team, the No. 14 Aggies placed third behind top-ranked Oklahoma and No. 15. Texas A&M finished 1-under par, which was three strokes behind the Sooners (-4) and two shots behind the Seminoles (-3). Rounding out the top 10 teams were No. 16 Texas Tech (+8), No. 3 Arizona State (+10), No. 22 Oklahoma State (+14), No. 10 Texas (+15), UTSA (+16), No. 12 Arkansas (+21) and No. 11 Arizona (+25).

Contributing counting scores for the Aggies in the final round were Bennett and senior Dan Erickson with 5-under 67s, freshman Daniel Rodrigues with a 2-under 70 and senior Walker Lee and sophomore William Paysse with 1-over 73s.

In addition to Bennett on the individual leaderboard, Erickson tied for fifth at 2-under (74-73-67), Lee tied for 26th at 4-over (73-74-73), Rodrigues tied for 29th at 5-over (78-73-70) and Paysse tied for 31st at 6-over (76-73-73).

Aggies on the Leaderboard (Final):

Place Team/Player Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Total
3 Texas A&M 297 289 277
1 Sam Bennett 74 70 67
T5 Dan Erickson 74 73 67
T26 Walker Lee 73 74 73
T29 Daniel Rodrigues 78 73 70
T31 William Paysse 76 73 73

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