Augusta Masters: in a second day interrupted by bad weather, Sam Bennett surprised everyone and Tiger Woods is at serious risk of court

“Don’t wait to do something” is the handwritten phrase that the American has tattooed on his left forearm Sam Bennett, the only one of the seven fans who disputes the 87th Augustan Masters who managed to pass the qualifying cut this Friday in a second round that was postponed to Saturday due to bad weather and had two other amateurs, including the Argentine Matthew Fernandez De Oliveira, with a handful of holes ahead to avoid elimination. That expression was the last thing his father, Mark, wrote during his battle with Alzheimer’s, the disease he was diagnosed with when his son was in high school and led to his death in the summer of 2021.

In a moment of lucidity amid his drastically deteriorating health, he spoke those words to her one day in the kitchen of the family home in Madisonville, Texas. Sam asked his mother, Stacy, if she could make him write that down on a piece of paper. They did it. Mark signed it “Dad”, the then-teenager Bennett kept that in the van they had and decided to replicate it on his skinin addition to other tattoos on the chest that include “five birds that represent the members of my family and a Methodist cross”, for his religious faith, as the 23-year-old golfer confided to the Golf Channel.

in the midst of so many stars, Sam is playing for the first time there in Georgia, He reaches the third day with 136 hits (-8), is among the first in the classifier and it is the young attraction of a tournament in which there is an experienced player who keeps thousands of spectators captivated: Tiger Woods. The 47-year-old Californian had already received the green jacket for winning the championship (and later four more times) when Bennett was not born. This weekend they meet in the most famous course on the circuit, although for El Tigre everything is visibly uphill: He fights against the pitch and with his ailments in his right leg, from the pain in the ankle that affects the entire area, one of the consequences of the car accident that almost cost him his life in 2021.

Woods suffered just one early exit in his previous 24 appearances at Augusta. It was as an amateur in 1996, a year before his first conquest. Thursday’s start was discouraging, with three bogeys over his first seven holes, but he made up plenty of ground and will look to go all the way at the restart in what could be one of his last Masters appearances. The projected line of cut (+2) has it at his back like a guillotine. Tiger got to play eleven holes yesterday, following par on the course, and he’s +2. He tries not to show clear signs of his physical problems, to enjoy himself as much as possible and feels the warmth of the public as if he had never lost prominence in tournaments.

Earlier, Bennett closed his second round repeating the 68 (-4) of the first day, this time before the storm that even caused two trees to fall on the 17th hole, without causing injury to anyone. Sam, who won the US amateur championship last year and secured his place there at Augusta and this season’s Open Championship, has the chance to join the group with the world number one and tough defending champion. Scottie Scheffler, who signed a card of 75 (-3), accumulates 143 (-1) and is eleven shots behind the leader, his American compatriot Brooks Koepka.

The youngest of three brothers, Bennett, He faces his second major, after having qualified in 2022 for the United States Open, where he managed to cross the cut and finish 49th. By then his conditions were evident, the result of his passion for this sport since his youth, something that allowed him with his ability to access a university scholarship, always close to home. “I love my family. I didn’t want to be away.” recalled the boy in an interview. In those days, his father’s incurable memory loss was well advanced.

The hole on which Bennett placed second in the tournament

It was a hard stage. Sam leaned on his college coach Brian Kortan, who had lost his father at a young age. Later, started taking antidepressants already frequently consult a sports psychologist to deal with the anxiety that afflicted him. “I was tired of feeling this way and I knew that I wanted to live a happy life. That It allowed me to better calm my hyperactive mind, channel nervous energy and process the new reality.” confessed the Texan, who now competes free. “I know that my father is no longer sick and that he has no problems. That gives me peace.” After the Death decided to honor him with the tattooed phrase and now, in Augusta, in the game he knows best.

In the opening day he did not commit any bogey. “There are very few things I like more than playing a round of golf without bogeys,” he said. While he did make one on Friday, five birdies stayed the course to show him in the leading pack. In the final two rounds, he will test his stamina and mental toughness at Augusta National Golf Club to trying to become the first amateur to put on the green jacket awarded by this emblematic contest. His regularity sustains him and he does not think about records, although he matched the 32 shots on the first leg on Thursday, which is the lowest number recorded at that course by an amateur. They warned him that he had joined the celebrity group made up of Ken Venturi, Matt Kuchar and Ben Crenshaw. “I guess that’s great,” he relativized the feat. Look forward rather than backward.

With Ben Carr, Matthew McClean, Aldrich Potgieter and Gordon Sargent already out, there are only two other fans who could make the cut: Fernández De Oliveira, the Sanisidrense who had the pleasure of playing a major after his qualifying conquest at the Latin America Amateur Championship in January, in Puerto Rico, and the Australian Harrison Crowe, who have +5 and just five and three holes ahead, respectively, to reverse history and reach the outcome. Bennett did not wait for them.