March 24, 1999
Texas A&M senior Ryan Palmer fired a final round three- under-par 69 on Tuesday but couldn't overcome Georgia's Ryuji Imada in a fierce battle for the individual title at the Cleveland Golf/Morris Williams Intercollegiate at Austin Country Club.
Palmer (Amarillo) finished just one stroke behind Imada with a three-round total of 72-73-69=214. Imada carded rounds of 72-70-71=213. Palmer finished one stroke ahead of BYU's Andy Miller (73-73-69=215), son of former PGA TOUR standout Johnny Miller, and Texas' freshman David Gossett (73-71-72=216), the nation's top- ranked college player.
As a team, the Aggies carded rounds of 311-310-293=914 to finish in ninth place. No. 3-ranked Georgia (299-288-289=876) won the event by nine strokes over No. 2-ranked UNLV (885). No. 7 Houston finished third at 887, followed by No. 13 Brigham Young at 893, No. 4 Oklahoma State at 897, No. 22 New Mexico at 898, No. 6 Texas at 900, Pepperdine at 906, A&M at 293, No. 31 Southern California at 922, No. 32 SMU at 926 and No. 20 Oklahoma at 946.
Also for A&M, junior Lee Reed (Rigby, Idaho) tied for 23rd at 77-76-74=227, sophomore Casey Cronin (Rockwall) tied for 37th at 78-78-74=230, sophomore Clay Fullick (Baytown) tied for 47th at 81-78-74=233, freshman Josh McCoy (Perryton) finished 66th at 86-83-76=245, senior Matt Welch (DeSoto) finished 67th at 81-85- 82=248 and sophomore Ryan Tull (Georgetown) finished 70th at 79-83-90=252.
Palmer has posted three straight top 10 finishes, including two top three finishes. He finished third at the Louisiana Classics on March 9, tied for 10th at the Border Olympics on Saturday and finished second this week.
The Aggies are back in action April 10-12 at the MacGregor Downs Intercollegiate in Cary, N.C., their final tuneup for the Big 12 Championships April 25-27 in Hutchinson, Kan.