September 04, 2006
The Texas A&M men's golf team is ranked No. 7 nationally in Golfworld's preseason college golf poll.
Defending NCAA champion Oklahoma State is ranked No. 1, thanks largely to having the country's top two individual players in No. 1-ranked Pablo Martin and No. 2 Jonathan Moore. The only other Big 12 team in the top 25 is Texas Tech, which is ranked 24th.
The Aggies return three starters from last year's team that finished the season ranked sixth, but have no seniors. Sophomore Bronson Burgoon, who led the Aggies with a 73.07 scoring average as a freshman, is ranked among Golfworld's top 50 players, while juniors Robert Gates and Martin Piller also return.
A&M Coach J.T. Higgins welcomes a strong recruiting class made up of a trio of highly-touted freshmen -- John Hurley of O'Neill, Neb., Ignacio Elvira of Spain and Andrea Pavan of Italy.
"We are looking for big things from all three of our returning starters," Higgins said. "They are still pretty young but they have a lot of experience and talent. All three have the ability to be All-Americans. There are several other returning players that I think are ready to break into the lineup as well which should make our qualifiers fun to watch."
"I'm also excited about the newcomers this year," Higgins added. "They are all so talented that it will be tough to say who is going to play right away and make an impact. All three are really good and can shoot some low scores."
The Aggies opened their fall season with a fifth-place finish on Sunday at The International Collegiate in Scotland. They compete in the Inverness Intercollegiate next week in Toledo, Ohio.