April 23, 1999
The Texas A&M men's golf team will compete in the 1999 Big 12 Men's Golf Championships Monday and Tuesday at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. Play begins at 8 a.m. (MST) each day.
The 54-hole tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday and a final 18 holes on Tuesday. The Aggies finished fifth last year.
The tournament is being played for the third straight year at Prairie Dunes, a par-70, 6,593-yard course that is ranked among the top 50 in the world and the top 20 in the United States. Opened in 1937, the Perry Maxwell-designed layout has been called "a touch of Scotland in Kansas" by many admirers.
All 12 conference schools will participate, including four teams ranked in the top 25 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings -- No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 11 Texas, No. 18 Nebraska and No. 24 Oklahoma.
Representing A&M will be senior Ryan Palmer (73.38 stroke average), sophomore Casey Cronin (75.81), junior Lee Reed (77.22), senior Matt Welch (77.77) and freshman Sean Gilliland (76.57).
"We are certainly looking forward to the competition," said coach Bob Ellis, in his 25th season at A&M. Prairie Dunes is truly a great golf course and it should be another great tournament. If we can win the championship, we can still make the regional and continue our season."
Last year, the Aggies were the surprise first-round leaders after carding a 306 in cold, wet, windy conditions that Ellis called "the worst I've seen in my 24 years of coaching." However, the Aggies ballooned to a 321 in the second round, the worst round of the day. The Aggies closed with a solid 302, but finished fifth, 31 strokes behind champion No. 6-ranked Oklahoma State.
Reed led the Aggies, tying for 15th place at 75-82-74=231, followed by Palmer, who tied for 19th at 74-81-77=232. Oklahoma's Hunter Haas won the individual title with rounds of 72-75-71=218, one stroke ahead of Texas' Brad Elder. Haas returns to defend his title this season. At the inaugural Big 12 Championships in 1997, the Aggies finished eighth, 38 strokes behind the winner, Oklahoma State.
The Big 12 field includes 17 players ranked in the national top 10 by either the Golfweek/ Sagarin Rankings or the MasterCard Rankings. Palmer is ranked No. 39 by MasterCard, the fifth-highest ranking in the field. The highest-ranked Big 12 player is Texas freshman David Gossett, who is ranked No. 2 by MasterCard.
Palmer and Reed are the only players in the A&M lineup who have played in a conference tournament before. Both have played in the first two Big 12 Championships at Prairie Dunes and Palmer won the Southland Conference title as a freshman at North Texas in 1996. In Big 12 Championships play, Palmer tied for 10th in 1997 and tied for 19th last year. Reed tied for 41st as a freshman and tied for 15th last year.
Palmer is one of the hottest players in the Big 12 going into the tournament with four straight top 10 finishes. Palmer's 73.38 stroke average does not rank among the top 10 in the Big 12, but his average of 72.00 in his last four tournaments certainly would. A two-time All-Big 12 pick, Palmer is going for his third straight all-conference citation.
"Ryan has had a great spring season and is trying to solidify his position to make All-America, which was one of his goals coming into the season," Ellis said. "All of our players see this tournament as a chance to redeem themselves for what has been a lackluster season."
The Aggies struggled early in the fall, finishing last at their first two tournaments, and never seemed to recover. A&M enters the Big 12 Championships after its third last-place finish in 10 tournaments at the BELLSOUTH Intercollegiate on April 12. In 10 events, A&M has posted only five top 10 finishes, but the Aggies have finished in the top 10 in three of five spring tournaments.
The NCAA Central Regional is scheduled for May 19-22 in Columbus, Ohio. For the Aggies to make the regional field, they likely would have to win the Big 12 Championships, although Palmer is a strong candidate to make regionals as an individual. In 24 previous seasons under Ellis, the Aggies have failed to make post-season play only two times (1976 and 1991).