March 08, 2008
Bobby Gates fired a 4-under-par 68 on Saturday as Texas A&M climbed into a tie for fifth place after two rounds of the Southern Highlands Collegiate at Southern Highlands Golf Club.
The Aggies (291-293=584) are 10 strokes behind the leader, No. 2-ranked Georgia (574), going into Sunday's final round. UNLV is in second (576), followed by No. 4 Charlotte (578) and No. 8 Southern California (580). No. 3 UCLA is tied with A&M at 584. Other team scores are Arizona State (589), No. 6 Georgia Tech (592), Arizona (593), No. 11 Florida (594), No. 5 Oklahoma State (601), Texas (601), Minnesota (615), Hawaii (625) and Air Force (634).
Gates is tied for second individually with a 36-hole score of 72-68=140 and trails leader Hudson Swafford of Georgia (70-66=136) by four shots.
A&M's Matt Van Zandt is tied for 17th (73-73=146), Nacho Elvira is tied for 27th (78-71=149), Bronson Burgoon is tied for 44th (71-81=152) and Austin Schauer is tied for 60th (75-81=156).
"Bobby played fantastic golf today," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "I was also very proud of Matt and Nacho. Bronson had a rough day, but we still had a good day as a team, which shows a lot of progress on our part. We are gaining confidence every round and have showed we can play with the best teams in the country. We're excited about coming our here on Sunday and giving it all we've got."