September 22, 2003
The Texas A&M men's golf team carded an opening round of 293 on Monday and is tied for ninth place at the rain-shortened Mason Rudolph Championship at the Golf Club of Tennessee. The final round is scheduled for Tuesday.
Monday's morning round was cancelled after heavy overnight rains, reducing the tournament to 36 holes.
Alabama-Birmingham fired a blazing 11-under-par 273 to take a commanding lead in the team standings, leading second-place South Carolina-Aiken (288) by 15 strokes. Mississippi and South Carolina are tied for third at 290, followed by LSU (291), Georgia State (291), Baylor (291), Kentucky (291), A&M (293), Florida State (293), College of Charleston (295), Vanderbilt (295), Alabama (296), Furman (297), Rhode Island (298), Virginia (299), North Florida (299) and Navy (311).
UAB's Garrett Osborne leads the individual standings after posting a five-under-par 66, one stroke better than teammate Chris Cousins' 67. Three players are two strokes back with 69s.
Senior Stephen Reed led the Aggies with an even-par 71 and is tied for 15th. Also for A&M, junior David Schultz is tied for 27th after a 73, senior Parker Briley is tied for 43rd at 74, sophomore Andrew Parr is tied for 51st with a 75 and senior David Tasker is tied for 78th at 79.
"You have to tip your hat to UAB and the way the played today," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "The have that big of a lead is impressive. I was a little disappointed in our road because we are still making the same mistakes. We didn't play the par five very well, either, and that's usually a strength for us. If we can have better course management tomorrow, we can still have a high finish."
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