September 13, 2003
Sophomore Andrew Parr fired a two-under-par 70 on Saturday to lead the Texas A&M men's golf team to a fifth-place finish at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate at the University of New Mexico's Championship Golf Course.
Parr's 54-hole score of 73-72-70=215 tied for fourth in the individual standings, the best finish of his career. The unranked Aggies beat four nationally-ranked teams, including two ranked in the top 10.
No. 8-ranked Arizona State won the tournament with score of 282-286-297=865, two strokes ahead of No. 20 New Mexico (867). Brigham Young finished third (875), followed by Texas Tech (882), A&M (290-298-295=883), No. 9 UNLV (884), Toledo (886), No. 7 Arizona (888), San Diego State (888), No. 26 Pepperdine (890), Texas-El Paso (892), No. 17 North Carolina State (893), New Mexico JV (894), Stanford (895), Colorado (899), New Mexico State (903), Baylor (903), Colorado State (904), Hawaii (914) and Air Force (925).
Ian Medlock of New Mexico's junior varsity team won the individual titles with rounds of 72-69-70=211, finishing two strokes ahead of Hawaii's Matthew Kodama (68-69-76=213.)
Senior David Tasker also had a strong performance for the Aggies, tying for 15th place with a 69-78-71=218 total. Also for A&M, senior Parker Briley tied for 46th (73-73-78=224), senior Stephen Reed tied for 57th (75-75-77=227) and junior David Schultz placed 77th (75-78-77=230).
Competing as individuals for A&M and not counting toward the team score, freshman Tyler Kief tied for 78th (73-83-75=231) and sophomore Rand Arbuckle tied for 99th (83-76-80=239).
"We beat several highly-ranked teams and for our first tournament of the year, I'm pretty pleased," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "We didn't play particularly well today, but we still finished in the top five against a really strong field. I'm especially pleased with how Parr and Tasker played. If we can get some of our other guys going, we can have a great season."
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