June 01, 2004
Texas A&M carded an 11-over-par 291 on Tuesday and is tied for 16th place after the opening round of the 107th NCAA Men's Golf Championship at The Homestead's Cascades Golf Course.
No. 20-ranked California fired a one-under-par 279 to take the first-round lead, thanks largely to Jeff Hood, who leads the individual standings after a five-under-par 65. No. 22 Brigham Young is in second at 280, while No. 10 TCU is third at 281.
The second round is slated for Wednesday, with the Aggies teeing off at 8 a.m. A&M is paired with Georgia Tech and Arizona State. The Aggies played in the afternoon on Tuesday.
"I feel great about where we are right now," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "Until all the teams play a morning round, you really can't get a good feel for how things are shaping up. The guys are excited about getting out there again."
A&M was led by junior David Schultz, who birdied two of his last three holes for a one-over-par 71. Senior Stephen Reed and sophomore Andrew Parr each carded 73s, while senior David Tasker had a 74 and sophomore Rand Arbuckle posted a 75.
Schultz finished 18th at the 2003 Southern Amateur played at The Cascades and said his knowledge of the course paid dividends. He was three-over-par after bogeying the par-4 13th, but finished strong with birdies on the par-5 16th and the par-3 18th.
"I feel very confident on this course after playing well here last summer," Schultz said. "I know where to hit it and where not to hit it, although I did hit it in the wrong place a few times today. I think we are in good shape as a team. We had a couple of mistakes at the end, but this is a long tournament."
Parr posted consecutive birdies on the 16th and 17th holes to get to even-par, then closed with a triple-bogey six on the 18th to spoil what would have been an outstanding round.
"I had a negative thought creep into my head on the tee shot," said Parr, who started the round with 12 straight pars. "I started to back off, but I went ahead anyway and hit it in the water. I was obviously a little upset, but that's golf. You make mistakes sometimes and you just have to shake it off. We've got three rounds to play and we're in good position."
Reed was at five-over-par but birdied the par-3 15th and the par-5 17th to finish at three-over.
"We feel like we didn't play our best golf, but we are still in great position," Reed said. "If we play well on Wednesday, we can leapfrog a lot of teams."
Auburn and No. 17 Kentucky are tied for fourth place at 283, followed by No. 11 Southern California (284), No. 2 Clemson (285), No. 1 Florida (285), No. 3 Georgia (285), No. 13 Oklahoma (286), No. 9 Texas (288), Penn State (289), No. 5 UCLA (289), Washington (289), No. 6 Georgia Tech (289), A&M (291), No. 15 New Mexico (291), Georgia State (292), No. 4 Arizona State (292), Purdue (292), No. 8 Arizona (292), No. 7 Oklahoma State (292), North Carolina (294), Kent State (294), Toledo (294), Vanderbilt (294), Pepperdine (295), SMU (297), Wichita State (298) and Rhode Island (299).
The 30-team field will be cut to the top 15 after Thursday's third round, with the final round scheduled for Friday.
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