September 03, 2002
The Texas A&M men's golf team opens its fall season Friday and Saturday at the inaugural International Collegiate at the St. Andrews Bay Resort. The tournament is the first NCAA-sanctioned golf event conducted in Europe.
The tournament will consist of 18 holes on Friday and 36 holes on Saturday at the resort's Torrance Course. A&M is one of seven American teams participating, joining North Carolina, Wake Forest, Georgia Southern, Wofford, Akron and Texas Tech. Five university teams from Europe also will compete, including the University of St. Andrews, Oxford, Cambridge, Royal & Ancient Bursars Select and British Universities Select.
"This is the first NCAA event they've ever had over there and we're honored to be invited," said head coach J.T. Higgins, who is entering his second season at A&M. "We're looking forward to showing that we are a program to be reckoned with. We hope this is the start of what will be a great year for us."
Although the Aggies finished ninth at the Big 12 Championships last spring and did not advance to postseason play, Higgins has plenty of reason for renewed optimism this season. While six of the team's top seven players from last year return, A&M also welcomes what is arguably the best recruiting class in school history, including three American Junior Golf Association All-Americans and a first-team junior college All-American.
Junior Stephen Reed, the team's top scorer the last two years, leads the team to Scotland, along with sophomore Tyler Garrett, who played in 10 events as a freshman. They will be joined in the lineup by freshmen Andrew Parr and Pansing Singhaseni, and junior college transfer David Tasker.
Parr earned AJGA All-America honors in 2001 and finished third at the Canadian Amateur last month, while Singhaseni earned AJGA All-America honors in 2000. Tasker, a native of Australia, finished third at the 2001 National Junior College Athletic Association National Championship.
"We have some great leadership in Stephen Reed and David Tasker to help the young guys along," Higgins said. "We're young and we're going to make a lot of mistakes, but we hope to learn from those mistakes. This team practices hard, they love playing the game and they have a desire to be great.
"Our returning players gained a lot of experience last year and they all have improved over the summer," Higgins said. "Our newcomers will have a huge impact. The competition within the team will make it where you have to shoot good scores to make the lineup or stay in the lineup."
Other returning players on this year's team are sophomore Rand Arbuckle, junior Parker Briley, senior Shaun Helmle, senior Dwayne Morley and junior Mark Schultz. Other newcomers, all freshmen, are Peter Andrews, Tyler Kief, Kyle Nathan and Mike Rim. Rim is a 2001 AJGA All-American, while Nathan was the 2000 Illinois State Junior Player of the Year.