June 02, 2005
Texas A&M carded its second straight 296 on Thursday and remains tied for 26th at the midway point of the 108th NCAA Men's Golf Championships at Caves Valley Golf Club.
The 30-team field will be cut to the top 15 after Friday's third round. The final round is Saturday.
No. 2-ranked Georgia took a nine-stroke lead with a 274-284=558 total, while No. 12 Tennessee is second (567), No. 3 Georgia Tech is third (569) and No. 18 Southern California is fourth (572).
A&M (296-296=592) is 34 shots out of the lead and 11 shots out of 15th place. Top-ranked Oklahoma State is in 15th (581), Missouri is 22nd (586) and No. 20 Texas is 27th (595).
"We just didn't take advantage of our opportunities today," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "We fought hard and had a lot of good shots but just couldn't seem to get any putts to drop. We got off to a terrible start but we played all 18 holes and never quit. That gives us a chance to come back tomorrow and make the cut."
Pepperdine's Michael Putnam leads the individual standings by one shot with a six-under-par total of 67-67=134. Augusta State's Major Manning is in second at 65-70=135.
A&M freshman Robert Gates is tied for 18th at 68-73=141, while junior Jerad Harklau is tied for 70th (72-75=147) and senior David Schultz is tied for 141st (75-79=154). Junior Andrew Parr (81-74=155) and freshman Martin Piller (81-74=155) are tied for 143rd.
"Bobby played very well again and Piller and Parr bounced back and played pretty solid today," Higgins said. "Jerad had a rough start but held it together with a solid finish."
Parr was five-over through 13 holes, but played his last five holes on one-under. Harklau also finished strong, playing the last seven holes in two-under. Piller was two-over through 15, but took a double-bogey on the par-4 16th.
"We're not ready to give up yet," Higgins said. "We still have a chance. We'll battle tomorrow and see if we can find a way to make the cut. We know we've got to come out and play really good golf and we are very capable of doing that."
The Golf Channel will televise the final two rounds on a tape-delayed basis from 2-4 p.m. (Central) each day. A&M tees off at 1:03 a.m. (Central) on Friday and is paired with New Mexico and Tulsa.