April 29, 2002
The Texas A&M men’s golf team carded rounds of 300-300=600 on Monday and is in 10th place at the Big 12 Championships at Prairie Dunes Country Club.
The tournament concludes with a final 18 holes on Tuesday on the par-72, 6,598-yard course that is the site of the 2002 United States Women’s Open.
Oklahoma took advantage of ideal conditions and leads going into the final round after blistering the course with record rounds of 283-274=557, a three-under-par total. The previous single-round record was a 284 by A&M in the opening round in 2000.
Texas is 10 shots back at 285-282=567, followed by Oklahoma State (574), Baylor (583), Missouri (585), Colorado (590), Texas Tech (591), Iowa State (592), Kansas State (595), A&M (600), Kansas (601) and Nebraska (607).
Oklahoma junior John Kidwell leads the individual standings with rounds of 64-69=133, two strokes ahead of teammate Cody Freeman’s 69-66=135. Texas’ Jason Hartwick is in third at 72-65=137.
The Aggies were led by a trio of players who are tied for 33rd place with 150 totals – freshman Rand Arbuckle (77-73), sophomore Stephen Reed (74-76) and senior Sean Gilliland (73-77). Arbuckle was six-over-par after six holes, but played his last 30 holes in just four over. Freshman Tyler Garrett is tied for 40th at 76-76=152 a junior Dwayne Morley is tied for 48th at 80-75=155.
“I was pleased with how well our players handled themselves and kept their frsutration levels to a minimum,” first-year A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “This is a very difficult golf course and we left ourselves with some impossible up-and-downs. I was really pleased with how Rand and Dwayne came back after struggling early.”