May 17, 2003
The Texas A&M men's golf team carded a final round of 294 on Saturday and tied for 23rd at the NCAA Central Regional, falling short in its bid to advance to the NCAA Championships.
With the top 10 teams advancing to nationals, the Aggies knew they had to be aggressive and shoot a low score on Saturday after starting the round nine shots out of 10th place.
"We came out aggressive and shooting at the pins and when you play like that you either make a lot of birdies or a lot of bogeys," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "But that's the way we had to play to have a chance and it just didn't work out for us. I was proud of the way our guys battled."
The Aggies' 296-297-294=887 total finished 16 shots behind Wichita State, which finished 10th and claimed the final qualifying spot with an 871 total.
No. 5-ranked Oklahoma State carded a six-under-par 282 on Saturday to capture the team title with an 856 total, five strokes better than second-place Illinois (861).
Other teams qualifying for the NCAA Championships May 27-30 in Stillwater, Okla., were No. 19 North Carolina State (862), No. 9 North Carolina (867), No. 4 Texas (867), Kentucky (869), SMU (870), No. 14 Minnesota (870), No. 20 Arkansas (870) and Wichita State (871).
Host Kansas State closed with an eight-under-par 280, but missed tying for the last qualifying spot by just one stroke with an 872 total.
Other non-qualifying teams were Texas Tech (874), Lamar (875), Toledo (876), Ohio State (876), TCU (877), Kent State (879), North Texas (879), Kansas (881), Oklahoma (882), Michigan State (882), Northwestern (884), A&M (887), Tulsa (887), Wright State (887), Missouri (888) and Baylor (893).
A&M junior Parker Briley led the Aggies, closing with a one-under-par 71 that included four birdies. Briley tied for 38th in the individual standings with a 72-75-71=218 total.
Briley had the shot of the day for the Aggies, chipping in from 50-feet from an awkward lie behind the par-4 second hole. Briley later chipped in for bogey after taking an unplayable lie on the par-4 14th. Briley took his round under par with consecutive birdies on the 16th and 17th holes.
"I'm really pleased with how Parker played, not just today but in the last few tournaments of our season," Higgins said.
Also for A&M, junior Stephen Reed tied for 85th at 77-73-74=224, freshman Andrew Parr tied for 85th at 74-76-74=224, junior David Tasker tied for 96th at 77-73-75=225 and senior Shaun Helmle tied for 137th at 73-85-77=235.
"We improved a lot from the start of our fall season and we're excited about where our program is headed," Higgins said. "Four of our five players here return next year. They gained some valuable experience here that will benefit our team next year."
Houston's Brett Callas, competing as an individual, won the individual title with a nine-under-par total of 71-69-67=207, one shot better than Illinois' Patrick Nagle (67-72-69=208). Callas and Lamar's Chris Stroud, who tied for 14th with a 213 total, earned the two individual bids to the NCAA Championships.
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