October 03, 2006
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- Martin Piller and Bronson Burgoon each fired one-under-par 69s to keep Texas A&M within one shot of the lead at the PING/Golfweek Preview at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, site of the 2007 NCAA Championships. The final round is Wednesday.
The Aggies are tied for third place with a three-over 280-283=563 total. Oklahoma State and Florida are tied for the lead at 562 and UNLV is tied with A&M.
Georgia is in fourth place (568), followed by Arizona State (571), Clemson (572), Lamar (573), Kentucky (575), Washington (581), Minnesota (582), Georgia Tech (585), BYU (585), Wake Forest (586) and Virginia Commonwealth (597).
Oklahoma State's Pablo Martin leads the individual standings with a four-under 67-69=136, one stroke better than Minnesota's Bronson LaCassie (68-69=137) and Arizona State's Niklas Lemke (67-70=137). Burgoon is tied for fourth (69-69=138), just two shots off the pace.
A&M's Robert Gates (67-74=141) and Piller (72-69=141) are tied for 13th, Trey Todd (72-71=143) is tied for 20th and Chris Massoletti (76-75=151) is tied for 62nd.
The tournament features the top 10 teams from Golfweek's final rankings last season.
"We have good chance win tournament, which is our goal every time we play," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "This is a fantastic field and our guys are gaining confidence with every hole. They are starting to realize we belong with these teams and that we can play with anybody.
"We played really good golf today, but we still let a lot of shots slip away," Higgins added. "If we can take better advantage of our opportunities, there's no telling what kind of score we can post."