March 09, 2008
Nacho Elvira fired a bogey-free, 2-under-par 70 on Sunday to help Texas A&M to a sixth-place finish at the Southern Highlands Collegiate at Southern Highlands Golf Club.
A&M (291-293-300=884) finished 15 strokes behind host UNLV, which won its own event with a 5-over total of 869. No. 4-ranked Charlotte placed second at 871, followed by No. 2 Georgia (872), No. 8 Southern California (878) and No. 3 UCLA (881). Finishing behind A&M were Arizona State (885), No. 11 Florida (894), No. 5 Oklahoma State (895), No. 6 Georgia Tech (897), Arizona (897), Texas (898), Minnesota (908), Hawaii (942) and Air Force (954).
USC's Rory Hie (71-69-73=213) won a three-way playoff for the individual title. A&M's Bobby Gates finished fourth with a 2-under total of 72-68-74=214, missing the playoff by a single shot. Elvira (78-71-70=219) tied for 13th.
A&M's Bronson Burgoon (71-81-74=226) tied for 36th, Matt Van Zandt (73-73-84=230) tied for 56th and Austin Schauer (75-81-82=238) tied for 68th.
"It turned windy today and the course played really tough today," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "The greens were lightning fast. I was really proud of Nacho. To play without a bogey in these conditions was fantastic golf. Bobby had a great tournament and overall, I was pretty pleased with our performance, although we want to start winning some of these. We beat our Big 12 opponents and we showed we can compete with the best teams in the country. I think we'll just get better from here."
The Aggies are back in action at the Barona Collegiate Cup March 17-18 in Lakeside, Calif.