Sept. 22, 2008
NEWPORT, R.I. - Texas A&M senior Bronson Burgoon fired an eight-under-par total of 69-66=135 on Monday to lead the No. 9-ranked Aggies into first place on the opening day of the Adams Cup of Newport at Newport National Golf Club.
Burgoon played almost perfect golf, hitting 34 of 36 greens in regulation to take a four-shot lead heading into Tuesday's final round. On the two holes where he missed the green, he still managed to play under par, holing out a 45-foot sand shot for birdie on the par-4 12th. Southern Mississippi's Rocky Cleland is in second at 69-70=139, while A&M junior Andrea Pavan (69-72=141) and Akron's David Addison (73-68=141) are tied for third.
"Bronson might have played the most flawless golf that I've seen in all my years as a coach," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "He had complete control over the golf ball and put it wherever he wanted. It was a remarkable performance."
Burgoon's 36-hole score is the third best in school history behind Jeff Maggert (65-57=132) at the 1986 Morris Williams Intercollegiate and Philip Parkin (68-66=134) at the 1984 All-American Intercollegiate.
The Aggies carded a team score of 10-under (566) and leads Minnesota (571) by five strokes. Southern Mississippi is a distant third at 13-over (589), followed by Rhode Island (594), Furman (595), Francis Marion (595), Hartford (597), George Washington (597), St. Joseph's (601), New Mexico State (602), Akron (602), Temple (611), Marshall (614), Connecticut (622), Navy (629) and Brown (634).
A&M sophomore Johnson Hurley is tied for 14th (75-71=146), sophomore Matt Van Zandt is tied for 23rd (78-71=149).
"For the first day of the season we did pretty well but we gave a lot of shots back," Higgins said. "If this was later in the year, I really think we would be 15 or 20 under. We made 21 birdies and had an eagle today and shot eight under. Obviously, we have a lot of talent on this team and can make a lot of birdies."