April 28, 2003
Although the Texas A&M men's golf team is 16 strokes behind leader Oklahoma going into Tuesday's final round of the Big 12 Championships at Southern Hills Country Club, the Aggies know they are capable of a comeback victory.
Earlier this month in Laredo, the Aggies faced an identical 16-shot deficit going into the final round at the Border Olympics, but charged to victory with a 10-under-par 278. A&M will need a touch of the same magic if the it is going to claim its first Big 12 golf title.
After struggling to a score of 312 in the first round Monday morning, the Aggies bounced back with a 299 in the afternoon, the third-best team score of the round, climbing into fifth place with a 611 total. The Sooners posted rounds of 302-293=595 to lead No. 8-ranked Oklahoma State (303-294=597) and No. 3-ranked Texas (296-301=597) by two strokes.
Kansas State is in fourth at 305-302=607, followed by A&M (611), Texas Tech (612), Kansas (620), Colorado (623), Missouri (624), Nebraska (625), Baylor (625) and Iowa State (631).
"We know we can come back, especially on a harder course like Southern Hills," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "If we just play smart golf, the other teams can come back to you very easily out here. If we can correct some of the mistakes we made in the first two rounds, we can play with any team in the conference. We just need to do our best and make pars."
Pars were hard to come by on Monday at Southern Hills, the site of three U.S. Opens, most recently in 2001. Oklahoma State's Hunter Mahan carded a three-under-par 67 in the afternoon round - the only sub-par round of the day -- to take a seven-shot lead in the individual standings with an even-par total of 140. Kansas State's Matt Van Cleeve is in second at 72-75=147.
A&M junior David Tasker is tied for sixth place after rounds of 76-73=149 and is one shot behind a group of three players tied for third at 148. Also for A&M, junior Parker Briley is tied for 15th at 79-74=153, junior Stephen Reed is tied for 19th at 79-75=154, freshman Andrew Parr is tied for 22nd at 78-77=155 and senior Shaun Helmle is tied for 54th at 86-78=164.
"We were a little intimidated by the golf course early on," Higgins said. "The greens were fast as lightning and we struggled mentally. Once we realized that everyone in the field was struggling, we started playing some solid golf. You have to put the ball in the ball in the right places here and we did a better job of that in the afternoon."
Tasker made only two birdies on the day, but stayed away from the big numbers that haunted much of the field. Reed made six birdies, tied with Mahan for most in the first two rounds, but suffered a pair of triple bogeys and several double bogeys.
"I like the way I'm swinging right now," Tasker said. "I hit some good shots and made some putts in the second round, although I missed a couple as well. I've found a good rhythm and hopefully I can come out tomorrow and shoot a good number and finish strong. You're going to make some bogeys out here. You've got to stay in it mentally and grind it out."
After carding a six-over-par 41 on his first nine, Briley played the next 27 holes in seven-over-par, including even-par on his final nine.
"When I was six-over at the turn in the first round, I just told myself that there would be some high scores and I needed to play smarter," Briley said. "On a U.S. Open course like this, you have to know where you can miss it. The greens here are as fast as when they had the Open two years ago.We know we can come back. We just need to grind it out and not get frustrated with the course."
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