September 06, 2002
The Texas A&M men's golf team overcame a tough morning round with a solid afternoon score on Friday and is in sixth place at the inaugural International Collegiate at the St. Andrews Bay Resort.
The Aggies struggled to a 26-over-par opening score in cold, windy conditions, but bounced back with a one-over-par 289 in the second round for a 603 total. The tournament, the first NCAA-sanctioned golf event in Europe, concludes with a final round on Saturday.
"I am extremely proud of our team for battling back to post such an outstanding score in the second round this afternoon," said A&M coach J.T. Higgins. "We got off to a horrible start. I think it was a combination of nerves, inexperience and unforgiving conditions, which were similar to British Open weather. "
Wake Forest (286-290=576) and North Carolina (294-292=576) are tied for the lead, followed by the Royal & Ancient Bursars (290-289=579), Stirling University (293-290=583), British University Select (299-297=596), A&M (314-289=603), Texas Tech (303-301=604), St. Andrews University (302-309=611), Georgia Southern (309-305=614), Wofford (314-305=619) and Oxford/Cambridge (319-332=651)
North Carolina's Ramon Bescansa leads the individual standings with a seven-under-par total of 70-67=137, three strokes ahead of North Carolina teammate Dustin Bray (72-68=140) and R&A Bursars' Ewan Forbes (74-67=141).
A&M was led by junior David Tasker, who is tied for 11th at 72-73=145. Sophomore Tyler Garrett is in 25th at 78-73=151, junior Stephen Reed is 26th at 81-71=152, freshman Pansing Singhaseni is in 41st at 83-73=156 and freshman Andrew Parr is in 45th at 85-72=157.
"It was a difficult test of golf and while it got the better of us in the morning, we played with a lot of heart and gave ourselves chance to have a strong showing in our first tournament of the year," Higgins said. "Hopefully, it will carry over to tomorrow's round and we can pass a couple more teams."
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