Bennett's stellar debut leads No. 11 Texas to second place in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational – The Daily Texan

Freshman Daniel Bennett's impressive collegiate debut led the No. 11 Texas Longhorns to a second-place finish at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational in Fort Worth on Tuesday afternoon.

All five Longhorn competitors finished in the top 20 and posted a team score of 834, an average of 6 below average for the team's best finish this fall. With Fields at his side, Bennett got off to an impressive start to kick off the two-day, 54-hole tournament.

“You (don’t) expect a man to just jump out and do that right away; “I have a head start going into the final day,” Fields said. “That’s something Jordan Spieth did, that’s something Brandon Stone did, so he’s in good company.”

During the back nine of the first round, Bennett shot 31, four under par, to propel himself to the top of the tournament leaderboard. A solid performance in the second round gave Bennett a final score of 65 and five under par on the first day, placing him first in the tournament.

At the start of the third round, Bennett was unable to achieve the same level of success as he struggled in the front nine, scoring two over par. On the second nine holes, Bennett broke even par on most of his holes, earning a score of 34 and an average of one over par.

“He hit a lot of good shots, maybe a few things happened… yesterday it went in the opposite direction,” Fields said. “But that’s golf, it’s just something you have to deal with.”

Buoyed by his first-day success, Bennett finished with an average of five under par and a final score of 205 in his debut for Texas, finishing tied for third place with Oklahoma's Drew Goodman and Auburn's Billy Davis.

Star junior duo Christiaan Maas, of South African descent, and Tommy Morrison each had a tough tournament. Despite stronger performances in the second round, the two each finished outside the top 10, with Morrison tied for 11th and Maas tied for 14th.

Junior Luke Potter had a solid performance over the first 36 holes, shooting three under par. Potter, who was in fifth place early in the third round, had a dismal double bogey on the fifth hole and two bogeys on the first holes of the second nine and finished round three six over par.

Both Potter and sophomore Jack Gilbert finished tied for 19th with an identical score of 213 for two over par.

“I think we have several guys on our team that can win, and that’s the type of team you want,” Fields said. “They have a chance to win golf tournaments.”

Despite his successes, Bennett never lost his composure during his 54 holes of golf, a testament to the natural talent and drive that brought him to Texas in the first place.

“(Bennett) came to Texas with a very good resume, he is the best junior and the best amateur in South Africa,” Fields said. “It reminds me of three other guys who played for us.”

Texas will return to the course next Tuesday for the final game of the fall schedule in the NB3 Match Play Tournament at Twin Warriors Golf Course in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.