October 11, 1998
The Texas A&M men's golf team begins play Monday in the Taylor Made Red River Classic at Dallas Athletic Club.
The tournament consists of 36 holes on Monday and 18 holes on Tuesday for a total of 54 holes. No. 15-ranked Arizona is the defending team champion while Oklahoma's Hunter Haas is the defending individual champion.
In addition to A&M and Arizona, other teams in the field are No. 1-ranked Oklahoma State, No. 2 Georgia, No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 6 Houston, No. 8 TCU, No. 12 South Carolina, No. 14 Texas, No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 17 Ohio State, No. 22 New Mexico, No. 25 Southern California, Wake Forest and SMU.
The Red River Classic was played at Brookhaven Country Club last year with A&M finishing 13th. A&M is making its sixth appearance in the tournament and third straight. The Aggies best finish was fourth in a 17-team field in 1995.
A&M is led by senior All-America candidate Ryan Palmer (Amarillo), who tied for eighth at the Windon Memorial Classic last week near Chicago. Palmer finished tied for seventh at the 1996 Red River Classic played at Dallas Athletic Club.