October 09, 2002
The Texas A&M men's golf team carded a final-round 286 on Wednesday and finished second at the Adams Cup of Newport, the Aggies' highest tournament finish in three years.
A&M carded rounds of 301-289-286=876 to finish just three strokes behind No. 23-ranked Michigan State, which captured the title with an 873 total. The last time A&M had a higher finish was when it won the 1999 Pepperdine Intercollegiate.
The Aggies were in ninth place after an opening round of 301 on Tuesday morning at the par-70 Newport Country Club, but charged back with a one-over-par 289 in the second round, played at the par-72 Newport National Golf Club. The round was five strokes better than any other team in the field. The second round started on Tuesday afternoon but had to be completed on Wednesday morning because of darkness.
A&M got off to a rough start in the final round and was 10-over-par through nine holes, but shot four-under-par on the back nine to lock up second place. Kentucky and No. 20-ranked Georgia tied for third at 879.
Virginia Tech finished fifth at 880, followed by East Tennessee State (881), Louisville (883), Georgia State (884), Rhode Island (891), Mississippi (891), East Carolina (893), Virginia (902), Yale (909), South Florida (910), Furman (913), Connecticut (925) and Marshall (939).
Junior Stephen Reed led the Aggies, tying for sixth place with a three-over-par total of 72-71-72=215, five strokes behind tournament champion Kasper Jorgensen of Georgia State, who posted a four-under-par total of 68-74-68=210.
Also for A&M, junior David Tasker tied for 19th at 80-72-68=220, senior Shaun Helmle tied for 27th at 75-77-71=223, freshman Andrew Parr tied for 31st at 79-70-75=225 and freshman Mike Rim tied for 62nd at 75-76-81=232.
"I'm really thrilled for our guys because they've worked so hard," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "They got focused on the back nine and held together. We weren't playing well early on, but they turned it around. We are doing the right things and starting to make progress."