January 30, 2005
The Texas A&M men's golf team opens its fall season at the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate on Monday and Tuesday at the Arizona National Golf Club at Sabino Springs.
The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday and a final 18 holes on Tuesday on the par 71, 6.900-yard course.
In addition to A&M, the 16-team field includes Arizona State, Brigham Young, California, UC-Irvine, UC-Riverside, Colorado, Fresno State, Long Beach State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Oregon, Texas-El Paso, Tulsa and host Arizona (two teams).
Representing A&M will be freshman Bobby Gates, junior Andrew Parr, senior David Schultz, junior Jerad Harklau and freshman Trey Todd.
"The team has been preparing really hard and we all feel good about the work we have put in over the off season," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "This is a little earlier than we usually start, but this is such a great tournament that it was hard to pass up the opportunity to play. I know I'm eager to see how we respond and the guys are excited to get back on the course and tee it up against some real competition. This is an exceptionally strong field and we will need to play outstanding golf to compete, but this is exactly what we will see the rest of the way so we might as well get used to it and learn to beat some of these teams."
The Aggies posted three top-five finishes in the fall, closing with a tie for second at the Barona Collegiate Cup and an impressive fourth-place effort at the Hooters Collegiate Match Play Championship, where they defeated top-ranked Georgia in the opening round.
Gates leads the Aggies with a 72.75 stroke average, followed by Parr at 73.08.
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