May 31, 2006
Seniors Andrew Parr and Jerad Harklau each opened with one-under-par 71s on Wednesday to lead sixth-ranked Texas A&M into 15th place after the first round of the NCAA Men's Golf Championships at the Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort.
The Aggies carded a whopping 16 birdies and an eagle, but those were offset by 13 bogeys and five double bogeys for a team score of three-over 291. Wake Forest leads after opening with an 11-under 277. UCLA is three strokes back (280) while Washington and Oklahoma State are tied for third (281).
The tournament continues with 18 holes each day through Saturday. The 30-team field field will be cut to the low 15 after Friday's third round. A&M tees off Thursday at 9:50 a.m. (CST) and is paired with Florida and Arizona State. Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
"We're a little disappointed because we made way too many big numbers," A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "We didn't do a good job of keeping the ball in play off the tee. The double-bogeys we made were terrible double bogeys. We would have liked to have had a better start, but fortunately there are 54 holes left to play. We didn't shoot ourselves out of it by any means. The guys battled and fought hard all day and they know tomorrow is another day."
Wake Forest's Kyle Reifers shot a seven-under 65 to lead the individual standings by one stroke over Oklahoma State's Pablo Martin (66) and Southern California's Taylor Wood (66). The players too advantage of ideal conditions as 50 golfers broke par on the 7,630-yard, par-72 course.
Parr and Harklau are tied for 28th place, six shots off the pace. A&M freshman Bronson Burgoon is tied for 83rd after a 74, while sophomores Robert Gates and Martin Piller are tied for 99th after carding 75s.
Clemson is in fifth place at 282, followed by Kentucky (283), Florida (284), North Carolina State (284), Oklahoma (284), East Tennessee State (286), Arizona State (287), Minnesota (287), Charlotte (288), Duke (290), Texas A&M (291), Northwestern (292), Lamar (292), BYU (292), South Carolina (292), Georgia (293), UNLV (293), Auburn (295), Arizona (296), Nevada (296), Pepperdine (296), Coastal Carolina (296), North Carolina (297), Texas Tech (297), Loyola Marymount (300) and Georgia Tech (301).
Parr and Harklau both had strong finishes. Parr was two-over at the turn, but shot a bogey-free three-under 33 on the back nine. Harklau birdied the first two holes, then suffered consecutive bogeys on the 3rd and 4th holes. He went to one-over after a bogey on the par-3 13th, but birdied two of the next three holes to get back under par.
Burgoon was four-over after a double-bogey on the 13th, but bounced back to birdie the 14th and 15th.
Piller eagled the par-5 2nd and was one under through 10 holes, but doubled the 11th a bogeyed two of the last three holes. Gates had a rollercoaster back nine after turning in two-over. He doubled the par-5 12th to go four-over, then birdied three of the next four holes to get back to one-over. But he then closed wityh bogeys on the final two holes.