ORLANDO, Fla. – Daniel Bennett walks the catwalk that connects Bay Hill’s range and practice green with confidence, like he belongs, even though he’s yet to hit a shot in a PGA Tour event.
The University of Texas sophomore just finished hitting balls next to three-time major champion and Longhorn legend Jordan Spieth – and he didn’t bat an eye, solely focused on his own swing, which he had Texas assistant Erik Henson film a few videos of on his phone to analyze his action.
Bennett possesses a bravado that reminds John Fields, the Longhorns’ head coach, of former Arizona great Manny Zerman, best known for being Phil Mickelson’s college rival in the early 1990s and one of the most confident, intense and intimidating players of that generation.
“When you see Daniel, he’s not walking with his head down; he’s got his head up,” Fields says. “He’s got this fire and this moxie, which can be misinterpreted. But when you overcome what he has, he has every right to be proud of what he’s doing.”
Bennett, 20, is making his PGA Tour debut at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, earning his sponsor exemption into the limited-field, signature event by winning a player vote at last summer’s Arnold Palmer Cup.
When the votes were all tallied, Bennett was shocked at the result. He’s the reigning Mickelson Award winner as the national freshman of the year and has now climbed to 16th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, but Bennett’s worthiness as determined by his peers likely has just as much to do with his story as his credentials.
“His path here certainly was not that of the typical AJGA junior,” Fields added.
Bennett wasn’t born to be a golfer. He spent the first nine years of his life in his native Botswana, growing up in what he described as the bush, surrounded by wild animals, and attended primary school in bordering Zimbabwe.
His first love was cricket, but when his family – parents, Neil and Lucy, and two siblings, William and Alexa – moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in 2015, Bennett pivoted to a different stick-and-ball game.
But less than five years after the move, in September 2019, the Bennetts’ home was destroyed in a fire, which claimed the family dog. Compounding matters, the pandemic struck just a few months later, devastating Neil’s business. The Bennetts were forced to move in with relatives in Durban, South Africa.
Bennett’s golf, though, soon provided hope. Under the tutelage of instructor and mentor Nico van Rensburg, a former professional golfer who runs Ernie Els’ junior events in South Africa and whose stable of talents includes Casey Jarvis and Bennett’s Texas teammate Christiaan Maas, Bennett ascended the country’s junior ranks.
He’d played so well, that he not only earned much-needed financial assistance but caught the attention of Fields. Only the longtime Texas skipper challenged Bennett; Fields had coached three players who were No. 1 amateurs in South Africa as high-schoolers – Dylan Frittelli, Brandon Stone and Maas – so if Bennett wanted a scholarship, he needed to check that off the list.
When Bennett won the 2023 Northern Amateur Open and two weeks later shot 34 under in four rounds to capture the Nomads South Africa Boys Under-19 Stroke Play Championship by a whopping 21 shots, Fields soon called to offer a full ride.
There was just one problem: When Bennett sent in his transcripts that summer before his senior year, he realized that because of the discrepancy of the academic calendars in Canada and South Africa, he was several credits short of where he needed to be.
“Another stumble in the process,” Bennett said. “I was playing some of the best golf of my life at the time, and I was set to go play all these events in the U.K. that summer, but I had to pull the plug and take some math exams.”
Bennett didn’t play a tournament from early May to late September, and he enrolled in a boarding school in Pretoria, about six hours away, for his senior year to make sure he was prepared for college.
“He really buckled down and got that taken care of,” Fields said.
And yet, more adversity found Bennett when he arrived in Austin, Texas, in Fall 2024. He missed in each of his first two qualifiers. In his first, he carded a ‘10’ on his final hole to fall out of the starting lineup, and in his second, he didn’t even come close. Henson attributed some of Bennett’s early struggles to a bit of homesickness.
“I came in thinking that it would be really easy to make the lineup, and that was probably the wrong mindset to have,” Bennett said. “I was in a mental blender after that. It humbled me pretty quickly, but it was also really good for me.”
Bennett earned the start in Texas’ third event, at Colonial, and carded nine birdies in his first round en route to a third-place finish. Now in his fourth semester, Bennett boasts five total top-3 finishes, albeit no victories. He’s also teed it up in three DP World Tour events, though Bennett knows the API is at a different level than anything he’s experienced before.
“He’s excited to see how he stacks up against these guys,” Henson said. “So far this week, he’s been like, ‘I know they’re really good at golf, but I think I’m really good at golf, too.’ He’s jumped into the deep end here.”
Henson wouldn’t be surprised to see Bennett, despite his unfamiliarity with PGA Tour competition, find a way to have some success this week.
“He’s always in the fight and never wavers,” Henson said.
Bennett has faced far bigger battles, too, and is grateful of his path to Bay Hill.
“If it wasn’t for moving to Canada, I wouldn’t be playing golf,” Bennett said. “It obviously was tough moving around all the time, new schools, new friends, then having everything happen that did, and it all was just really difficult. But it’s made me stronger because I’ve just found ways to get s--- done, if I can say that.”
Yes, Daniel, you’ve earned that right.