March 31, 2006
The No. 12-ranked Texas A&M men's golf team will compete in the Morris Williams Intercollegiate Monday and Tuesday at Austin Country Club.
The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday on the par-72, 6,906-yard course. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com.
The 18-team field boasts seven nationally-ranked teams in A&M, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 7 Brigham Young, No. 11 Baylor, No. 17 Pepperdine and No. 23 Southern California. Other teams competing are Ohio State, TCU, Arkansas, SMU, Stanford, Georgia State, Fresno State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Tulsa and host Texas.
Representing A&M will be seniors Andrew Parr and Jerad Harklau, sophomores Robert Gates and Martin Piller, and freshman Bronson Burgoon.
The individual field is loaded with eight players ranked among the top 16 nationally by Golfweek, including top-ranked Pablo Martin of Oklahoma State, No. 3 Anthony Kim of Oklahoma and No. 5 Ryan Baca of Baylor.
A&M has three players ranked in the top 100 with Parr at No. 76, Gates at No. 77 and Harklau at No. 98. Burgoon is ranked 105th.
The Aggies are coming off an impressive runner-up finish at the Hall of Fame Invitational on March 19 in Houston. Gates finished third individually while Burgoon was sixth and Parr placed 11th. Gates has posted two straight top-10 finishes.
"Austin Country Club is one of the best golf courses in the state and it has been very challenging to our teams in the past," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "But we believe we can play well on any course and we are looking forward to taking on another outstanding field of teams. Our goal all spring has been to improve every time we tee it up. We want to build on our finish last week in Houston as we prepare for the conference and NCAA tournaments."