October 03, 1999
The No. 24-ranked Texas A&M men's golf team will compete in the Windon Memorial Classic Monday and Tuesday at Conway Farms Golf Club.
The tournament consists of 36 holes on Monday and a final 18 holes on Tuesday for a total of 54 holes. Conway Farms, a 6,737-yard, par-71 layout, was the site of the 1997 NCAA Championships.
In addition to A&M, the 15-team field includes No. 1-ranked Northwestern, No. 12 North Florida, No. 17 Kansas, No. 20 Kent, Duke, Minnesota, Pepperdine, Purdue, Southern California, Stanford, Toledo, Vanderbilt, Washington and the Swedish National Team. The tournament field will include the last two NCAA individual champions. Minnesota's James McLean won the national title in 1998 and Northwestern's Luke Donald won the NCAA crown last spring.
Representing A&M will be senior Ty Cox, junior Casey Cronin, sophomore Sean Gilliland, freshman Matt Lindholm and junior Matt Loving.
"We're excited about playing again in this prestigious tournament," A&M coach Bob Ellis said. "We've played well there in the past. The Windon always has a strong field and we're playing on a great golf course. We played well in our first tournament this fall and we're looking to build on that."
The Aggies finished third in their season opener at the Big "E" SMU Stonebridge Shootout Sept. 20-21 in McKinney, a performance that vaulted the Aggies into the national rankings. Lindholm led the Aggies with a fourth place finish in his college debut.
The tournament was first played in 1993 as the Quintessence Classic. The tournament was renamed after the death of the former tournament chairman, Bernie Windon, later that year. The Aggies were tournament co-champions with Minnesota in 1994 as A&M's Anthony Rodriguez won the individual title.