April 03, 2003
The Texas A&M men's golf team will play host to the 52nd Annual Border Olympics, the nation's second oldest college golf tournament, on Friday and Saturday at Laredo Country Club.
The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Friday and 18 holes on Saturday for a total of 54 holes on the par-72, 7,125-yard course.
In addition to A&M, the 20-team field includes Alabama-Birmingham, Arkansas, Baylor, Brigham Young, Colorado State, Iowa State, Kansas State, Lamar, Louisiana-Lafayette, Notre Dame, Rhode Island, San Diego State, SMU, Southwest Texas State, Texas-Arlington, Texas Tech, Texas-San Antonio, Rice and Washington State.
Representing A&M will be juniors David Tasker, Stephen Reed and Parker Briley, senior Shaun Helmle and freshman Andrew Parr. Tasker leads the Aggies with a 72.48 stroke average and has posted five top-25 finishes, while Reed is averaging 73.63 per round and has six top-30 finishes.
"This is a big week for our team," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "We are facing a lot of teams from our district who we are competing with for a spot at regionals. We have been playing better, but we have struggled to put three solid rounds together. At times we look great, but then we manage to let a good tournament slip away with just a couple of poor holes. If we can stay focused for 54 holes, we will secure a spot in the postseason."
The Border Olympics began at Laredo's Casa Blanca Country Club in 1952. It was moved to Laredo Country Club in 1984. Past individual champions include North Texas State's Don January (1953) and Texas' Tom Kite (1970) and Ben Crenshaw (1971, 1972, 1973).
Baylor has won four of the last five team titles, and captured last year's crown with an 845 total. Houston owns the tournament record with 20 team titles. A&M has won the event three times (1980, 1981, 1997) with six Aggies capturing the individual crown, most recently Ryan Palmer in 1998.
-30-