April 25, 2006
Bronson Burgoon fired a one-under-par 69 and Robert Gates, Jr., added an even-par 70 on Tuesday to lead Texas A&M to a third-place finish at the Big 12 Men's Golf Championship at Southern Hills Country Club.
Oklahoma won its first Big 12 men's golf title with an 18-over-par 858, four shots better than No. 23 Texas (862) and eight ahead of the Aggies (289-287-290=866). The finish was the A&M's best in the 10-year history of the league. The Aggies' previous best was fourth in 2003, when the tournament was last played at Southern Hills.
A&M came into the day 11 strokes out of the lead with several holes remaining in the second round, which was not completed on Monday because of lightning. The Aggies finished the round strong on Tuesday morning, climbing to within four shots of leader Texas going into the final 18 holes.
A&M was within two shots through the first four holes in the final round, but played the next five holes in 13-over. The Aggies rallied to shoot one-under on the closing nine to lock up third place, finishing ahead of No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State, which finished fourth at 876. Burgoon fired a three-under 32 on the final nine holes.
"I was really proud of our team and how they battled all day," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "We got off to a good start, but the fifth through the ninth holes really hurt us. It looked like we were going to fall back in the standings, but our guys kept fighting and had a great back nine. We're disappointed we didn't win, but third place in this conference is nothing to hang our heads about."
The Sooners closed with the tournament's best round, a four-over 284, to pass the Longhorns and remain out of the Aggies' reach. A&M and Texas each closed with 290s in cool, breezy conditions at Southern Hills, the site of the 2007 U.S. Open.
Texas' Matt Rosenfeld captured the individual crown with a an even-par 71-70-69=210 total, finishing two strokes ahead of Oklahoma's Brodie Flanders (69-72-71=212). Gates tied for fourth with rounds of 70-74-70=214 and earned all-tournament honors for placing in the top 10.
Burgoon tied for 11th (72-76-69=217) for A&M while Martin Piller tied for 14th (72-70-77=219), Jerad Harklau tied for 19th (75-71-74=220) and Andrew Parr tied for 32nd (76-72-77=225).
No. 14-ranked Texas Tech placed fifth (876), followed by Nebraska (887), No. 12 Baylor (896), Kansas (897), Missouri (898), Kansas State (899), Colorado (899) and Iowa State (910).
"We've been in contention in every single tournament this season," Higgins said. "If we keep putting ourselves in this position, we're going to win. We've got two tournaments left and we've got a chance to win each one."
A&M is expected to receive a bid next week to one of three NCAA regionals set for May 18-20. The top 10 teams at each regional will advance to the NCAA Championship May 31-June 3 in Sunriver, Ore.