March 20, 2005
Freshman Robert Gates fired a four-under-par 68 on Sunday to lead the Texas A&M men's golf team to a fourth-place finish at the prestigious Hall of Fame Invitational at Redstone Golf Club.
The Aggies entered the final round in ninth place, but moved up five spots in the final standings after posting a final round team score of even-par 288 for a 54-hole total of 878. A&M defeated four nationally-ranked teams.
No. 1-ranked Oklahoma State won the title with an 18-under-par total of 292-270-284=846, finishing two shots ahead of No. 6 UNLV (848).
No. 4 New Mexico placed third at 865, followed by A&M, Arizona (879), No. 11 TCU (879), Purdue (880), No. 25 Texas (881), South Carolina-Aiken (881), Oklahoma (881), No.21 Kentucky (881), No. 5 Wake Forest (888), Vanderbilt (895), Arkansas (896), California (897), Houston (904), Penn State (904), Rice (921) and Gustavus Adolphus (951).
UNLV's Ryan Moore won the individual title with a 10-under-par total of 70-68-68=206, edging Oklahoma State's Tyler Leon, who nabbed second at 76-64-67=207.
Gates tied for 15th with an even-par 74-74-68=216 total, while A&M junior Andrew Parr tied for 25th (73-71-77=221), junior Jerad Harklau tied for 40th (72-78-73=223), and freshmen Matt Van Zandt (75-76-75=226) and Martin Piller (79-75-72=226) tied for 60th. Senior David Schultz, playing as an individual, tied for 47th (76-73-75=224).
"It's always our goal to play well in the final round so I'm pretty pleased with our effort," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "I'm proud of our guys. They never quit and kept battling. Bobby and our other freshmen did a fantastic job."
-30-