Texas A&M's Sam Bennett and Texas' Travis Vick finished their first round at the 2022 U.S. Open at even-par and tied for 25th in the 156-man field. The two current NCAA golfers were a part of the early wave of tee times on Thursday at The Country Club in Brookline, MA.
Vick, who was a factor in the Longhorns' 2022 national championship victory at Grayhawk Golf Club, got off to as good of a start as you could ask for at a major championship. For a moment early on, he was the round's leader. After a clean front nine at 1-under par, he slipped up with two bogies to open the back. He reigned it back in, though, with a birdie on 18 to finish at even for the day.
One aspect of Vick's game that will help him throughout this U.S. Open will be his distance off the tee. He finished with an average driving distance of 313.30 yards, that's the sixth best average at the halfway point on Thursday.
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Bennett, was a bit more balanced in his round, finishing with two birdies and two bogies to get to even. Although he might not have the same length as Vick off the tee, Bennett manages to keep it in the fairway. He hit 11 of the 14 fairways in his first round.
The Aggie was accurate off the tee. Hitting 11 of 14 fairways in the opening round to be tied for the third best for fairways in regulation. That allowed him to gain 1.27 strokes on the field thanks to his tee shots on par-4s and 5s.
Amateurs are making their presence known at Brookline. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/KxxOUrhNI5
— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 16, 2022
There are 13 current NCAA golfers in the field for the 122nd U.S. Open. The tournament will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday, June 19. You can see the complete leaderboard for the third major of 2022 here.
