April 09, 1998
The Texas A&M men's golf team faces some of the nation's top teams at the BELLSOUTH Yellow Pages Intercollegiate Friday and Saturday at MacGregor Downs Country Club.
The 10-team field includes five top 20-ranked teams, including No. 1 UNLV and No. 2 Clemson. Other teams in the field are No. 13 North Carolina, No. 19 North Carolina State, No. 20 Virginia, Duke, Wake Forest, Brigham Young and Western Kentucky.
The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Friday and 18 holes on Saturday for a total of 54 holes. The tournament is A&M's final tuneup for the Big 12 Championships April 27-28 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.
The Aggies are coming off an eighth-place finish on Sunday at the U.S. Collegiate Championships, where the Aggies carded an even-par 288 in the final round, the second best round of the tournament.
A&M is led by senior All-America Miguel del Angel (McAllen, Texas), who leads the team with a 73.15 stroke average and is ranked No. 32 in the MasterCard Individual Rankings. Junior Ryan Palmer (Amarillo, Texas), a two-time tournament winner this spring, has posted a 73.75 stroke average and is ranked No. 83 nationally.
Also representing A&M is sophomore Lee Reed (Rigby, Idaho) and freshmen Ryan Tull (Georgetown, Texas) and Clay Fullick (Baytown, Texas).
"Lee is really starting to come on and play well," A&M coach Bob Ellis said. "Miguel and Ryan Palmer have played well all year. Ryan Tull has been having some putting problems but he putted a lot better last week. I feel good about our team right now. We have struggled some with our short game but that is starting to come around. We go into every tournament with the intention of winning. That would be the best way to prepare for the conference championship."