No. 6 Texas men’s golf put a bow on a strong first-half of the season by sweeping the titles at the St Andrews Links Collegiate in Fife, Scotland last week. Junior Daniel Bennett claimed the individual title after being the only golfer to finish at least on-par over two rounds of stroke play.
Bennett’s performance earned him the first Southeastern Conference Men’s Golfer of the Week award of his career, but he was not the only Longhorn who had a standout performance. Graduate student Matthew Comegys and junior Eduardo Derbez Torres finished second and third individually at three and four strokes over, respectively.
“(I) couldn’t be more proud of them; all of them rose to the occasion,” head coach John Fields told Golf Channel after the event. “We’re a better golf team today than we were three days ago.”
All three of those Longhorns won their individual matches against the hosting University of St Andrews. Bennett and Derbez Torres both held leads from at least the fourth hole and on, while Comegys only managed to gain a lead on the 17th.
Sophomore Brooks Simmons also nabbed a one-stroke win, which clinched the victory for the Longhorns. Simmons hit a wonderful shot on the 18th hole that set him up for a birdie-sealing tap-in, handing the Longhorns the victory.
“I had a little bit of the shakes over the golf ball,” Simmons told Golf Channel. “Just coming down the 18th at the Old Course was something special, and that shot is something I’ll never forget.”
Texas’ win over St Andrews marks the team’s second first-place finish so far this season, a somewhat surprising result for a squad which lost three of its best golfers in Luke Potter, Christiaan Maas and Tommy Morrison after last season.
Fields credits the leadership of Comegys and Bennett for helping his young team exceed expectations in the early part of the season. Bennett, for his part, passes the credit on to his teammates.
“We’ve come a long way; I think we’ve got some studs that are doing a lot of stuff really well,” Bennett told Golf Channel.
Neither of the Longhorns’ teams were phased by the frigid Scottish wind, as women’s golf also captured a team victory and senior Farah O’Keefe earned co-medalist individual honors.
After an all-but-complete sweep, Texas leaves the famed ‘Home of Golf’ in a great position for the second half of the season.
“This has been an unbelievable moment in Texas golf history,” Fields told Golf Channel. “Playing the Jubilee Course (yesterday) and then playing the Old Course today, it gives me chills to even talk about it.”
The Longhorns will open their spring season on Jan. 25, 2027 at the Southwestern Intercollegiate in Westlake Village, California.
