April 13, 2001
The Texas A&M men's golf team will compete in the 12th annual Intercollegiate Golf Tournament Saturday and Sunday at Finley Golf Course, its final tuneup for the Big 12 Championships April 23-24 in Hutchinson, Kan.
The tournament, co-hosted by North Carolina and North Carolina State, will consist of 36 holes on Saturday and a final 18 holes on Sunday for a total of 54 holes on the par-72, 7,027-yard layout.
Ten teams in the 12-team field are ranked in the top 50 nationally in the latest Mastercard Rankings, led by No. 6-ranked Augusta State. In addition to A&M, the remainder of the field consists of No. 10 North Carolina State, No. 15 East Tennessee State, No. 19 Wake Forest, No. 23 Minnesota, No. 25 Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Tulsa and Colorado.
"This is another important tournament for us since so many ranked teams are involved," A&M coach Bob Ellis said. "We need to beat those teams to improve our chances for regionals. It would also give us a boost going into the conference tournament."
Representing A&M will be senior Casey Cronin, freshman Duke Butler, sophomore Matt Lindholm, freshman Stephen Reed and sophomore Dwayne Morley.
The Aggies are coming off their best effort of the season, a tie for third place at the Border Olympics on Saturday in Laredo that put them into contention for a berth in the NCAA Central Regional in May. Butler finished fourth in the tournament but did not count in the team scoring as he was competing as an individual. Butler's effort moved him to the top of the Aggies' season scoring list with a 74.38 average. He could become only the second A&M freshman (Lindholm was the first last season) to lead the team in scoring.
The tournament field includes 11 players who are ranked in the top 50 nationally in the Mastercard Individual Rankings. Three are ranked in the top 10 - East Tennessee State's Chris Wisler is ranked seventh while N.C. State's David Sanchez is ranked eighth and Augusta State's Jamie Elson is ranked ninth. Other ranked players include Oliver Wilson of Augusta State (19th), Michael Webb of Augusta State (20th), Matt Krauss of Duke (28th), Chris Mundorf of N.C. State (32nd), David Inglis of Tulsa (34th), Dustin Bray of North Carolina (45th), Brent Wanner of Wake Forest (47th) and Bill Haas of Wake Forest (50th).