September 11, 2007
The No. 12-ranked Texas A&M men's golf team carded a
final-round 294 on Tuesday and finished fourth in its season opener at the Inverness Intercollegiate at Inverness Golf Club.
No,-20 Florida State captured the title by six strokes with an 862 total, followed by Michigan State (868), No. 9 Florida (869) and A&M
(292-287-294=873).
The Aggies finished ahead of three top-10 teams in the 16-team field,
including No. 5 Oklahoma State (seventh at 884), No. 10 Southern California (eighth at 886) and No. 6 UNLV (12th at 902).
Three A&M players finished in the top 12 individually, led by senior Martin Piller, who tied for seventh (69-=72-74=215). Sophomore Andrea Pavan placed ninth (72-71-73=216) and senior Bobby Gates tied for 12th (74-71-73=218).
Florida State's Jonas Blixt (67-68-75=210) and Michigan State's Ryan Brehm (70-67-73=210) shared individual honors.
A&M junior Clay Hodge tied for 36th (78-73-74=225) and junior Matt Van Zandt tied for 74th (77-75-83=235).
The Aggies were 12-over-par after the opening nine holes on Tuesday, but played the back side in two-under.
"We played pretty well for our first tournament but we will get better," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "We battled hard after a terrible start and did a good job of bringing it in. It was close to being a very good tournament for us."
The Aggies return to action at the NCAA Fall Preview Sept. 22-23 in West Lafayette, Ind.