April 26, 2004
Texas A&M carded rounds of 304-305=609 on Monday and is in 11th place at the Big 12 Men's Golf Championships at wind-swept Prairie Dunes Country Club. The final round is scheduled for Tuesday.
No. 7-ranked Texas (287-290=577) and No. 8 Oklahoma State (292-285=577) are tied for the lead, two strokes ahead of host Kansas State (579).
"Obviously, we're really disappointed in our performance today," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "We thought we were mentally prepared for this course, the weather conditions and the pressure of playing in this great tournament. It's obvious we weren't and we'll have to deal with that. We need to be mentally stronger."
The Longhorns' Jason Hartwick leads the individual standings by three strokes after posting a four-under-par total of 70-66=136. Oklahoma State's Alex Noren is in second at 71-68=139.
No. 23 Oklahoma is in fourth place (587), followed by No. 24 Kansas (592), Iowa State (594), Colorado (596), Baylor (596), Texas Tech (597), Missouri (600), A&M and Nebraska (613).
The Aggies were led by their No. 5-seeded player, sophomore Rand Arbuckle, who is tied for 22nd at 75-74=149. Junior David Schultz is tied for 30th (73-77=150), senior David Tasker is tied for 47th (77-77=154), sophomore Andrew Parr is tied for 56th (81-77=158) and senior Stephen Reed is in 59th (79-81=160).
"I was really proud of Rand today," Higgins said. "We've been looking for our five-man to step up all year. He played with a lot of poise and composure and set an example for the rest of our players."
Arbuckle had the shot of the day for the Aggies, posting an eagle on the par-5 17th in the afternoon round. After a huge tee shot, he dropped a pitching wedge from 148 yards to within eight feet of the flag, then sank the putt.
"This was definitely one of the hardest days of golf I've ever played," said Arbuckle, an A&M Consolidated graduate. "I was just trying to keep the ball in play today. The wind made a two or three club difference at times and the greens were so hard and fast that it didn't help much when you were downwind."
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