March 16, 2006
The No. 16-ranked Texas A&M men's golf team will compete at the Hall of Fame Invitational Friday through Sunday at Redstone Golf Club.
The tournament will consist of 18 holes each day on the par-72, 7,352-yard course, which is the site of the the PGA TOUR's Shell Houston Open. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com.
In addition to the Aggies, the 17-team field includes top-ranked Georgia, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 12 Clemson, No. 13 Duke, No. 14 East Tennessee State, No. 22 Wake Forest, No. 23 New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, TCU, Vanderbilt, Guilford, Purdue and South Carolina-Aiken.
A&M will be represented by seniors Jerad Harklau and Andrew Parr, sophomores Robert Gates and Martin Piller, and freshman Bronson Burgoon. Harklau is ranked No. 90 nationally by Golfweek while Parr is No. 97.
The Aggies are coming off a strong fifth-place finish last week at the Southern Highlands Intercollegiate in Las Vegas. As a result, A&M climbed from No. 25 to No. 16 in Golfweek's national rankings.
"Last week was a very good showing for our team and I think we gained a lot of confidence by beating some great teams," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. But we are also very aware of the fact that it doesn?t mean anything to anyone playing in Houston. We are going to have to get back out there, play smart golf and be mentally strong if we want to compete in this field.
"Redstone is a demanding golf course and some of the best teams in the country will be trying to win this tournament so we will need to be at our absolute best this week," Higgins added.