May 15, 1998
The Texas A&M men's golf team carded a solid five-over-par 289 Friday and are tied for fourth place going into Saturday's final round of the NCAA Central Regional at Oak Hills Country Club.
The top 10 teams and two individuals not on those teams will advance to the NCAA Championships May 27-30 in Albuquerque, N.M. Saturday's final round begins at 7:30 a.m.
Houston took the second round lead with a round of 281 on Friday for a 564 total, three strokes ahead of Oklahoma and four ahead of Nebraska. A&M is tied for fourth with Minnesota at 571, the Aggies best 36-hole score of the season. Northwestern, which was tied for the first round lead with the Aggies, dropped into sixth place at 572.
A&M junior Ryan Palmer chipped in for an eagle on his 17th hole and finished Friday's round with a two-under-par 69 to go with his opening 68 on Thursday. Palmer's 137 total, tying his career best after 36 holes, puts him in third place in the individual standings, just one stroke behind leaders Hunter Haas of Oklahoma (67-69=136) and Matt Seppanen of Northwestern (68- 68-136).
Palmer, playing the back nine first, stood at two-under-par for the round after posting three birdies and one bogey through his first 11 holes. But bogeys on No. 3 and No. 7 put him back at even par with two holes to play. Palmer boomed a 300-yard drive to just in front of the green on the par 4, 309-yard eighth hole, then chipped in from 60 feet for an eagle 2 to go back to two-under.
"I feel real good about my round today," Palmer said. "I started out hitting the ball very solid, but it seemed like I was fighting to save par all through my last nine. It was a really tiring round. I felt like I left a lot of shots out there, but I hung in there and didn't let the bogeys coming in bother me. We need to come out tomorrow and play like we have the last couple of days. We don't want to be overly protective. We struggled most of the season as a team but everyone has seemed to pick it up here."
The biggest improvement for A&M on Friday was the play of junior Ty Cox, who carded an even-par 71 after struggling to an 80 on Thursday. Cox is tied for 83rd at 151, while freshman Ryan Tull is tied for 22nd at 68-75=143. Senior Miguel del Angel is tied for 53rd at 72-75=147 while sophomore Lee Reed is tied for 63rd at 74-74=148.
"We played very solidly today," A&M coach Bob Ellis said. "Ryan had a really good round and the other guys hung in there and gave it their best. We want to win the tournament but our main goal is to finish in the top 10 and go to nationals. The course is in great shape and is set up to produce some good scores. We just want to come out tomorrow and give it our best shot."
Friday's round featured 21 players breaking par, led by Nebraska's Jamie Rogers, who recorded a six-under-par 65. Sam Houston State's Todd Rossetti, competing as an individual, fired a 68 on Friday to move into a tie for 10th place at 141 and is a top contender for one of the individual qualifying spots.
The other teams in the top 10 heading into Saturday's final round are TCU in seventh at 573, Ohio State in eighth at 574, Kansas in ninth at 575 and Oklahoma State and Texas- Arlington tied for 10th at 578.
Also from the Big 12 Conference, Baylor is in 14th place at 586 and Texas is 19th at 592. Former Southwest Conference member SMU is tied for 17th at 589.