Oct. 18, 2009
SAN ANTONIO - Junior John Hurley tied the Texas A&M school record with an eight-under-par 64 on Sunday to help lift the No. 18-ranked Aggies to a 10-stroke lead after two rounds of the Lone Star Invitational at Briggs Ranch Golf Club.
A&M (286-280=566) trailed No. 4 Texas (284=292=576) by two strokes after Sunday morning's opening round, but beat the Longhorns by 12 strokes in the afternoon to take a double-digit advantage into Monday's final round.
"All our guys felt like they left a lot of shots out there after the morning round," A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. "They just kept playing steady golf. John didn't play much different in the afternoon; he just took advantage of his scoring opportunities. It's important for us to come out tomorrow and stay focused on the process and let the results take care of themselves. If we can do that, I'm confident we'll come home with a win."
The tournament features 12 of the 14 Division I schools in Texas, with only TCU and Texas Tech not in the field. Live scoring for the final round is available online at www.golfstat.com.
Hurley's 9-under total of 71-64=135 leads the individual standings by one stroke over SMU's Kelly Kraft (67-69=136).
Hurley tied the school record set by Bronson Burgoon last year at the Adams Cup of Newport. He recorded eight birdies and no bogeys, shooting four-under 32 on each nine. Hurley narrowly missed making birdies on the 17th and 18th holes to break Burgoon's mark.
"I knew I was playing pretty good," Hurley said. "Golf is fun when you hit the ball where you want it. I had a couple of opportunities to break Bronson's record on the last couple of holes but I'm really happy about the round. I birdied the 18th in the first round, then the first two holes this afternoon and that got me going."
A&M senior Andrea Pavan (73-68=141) is tied for fifth, junior Nacho Elvira (70-74=144) is in 13th, sophomore Geoff Shaw (73-74=147) is tied for 19th and freshman Cameron Peck (72-79=151) is tied for 32nd.
Pavan had six birdies and a pair of bogeys in his 68. A&M's entire lineup was solid in the opening round with no player shooting worse than 73.
Baylor is one shot behind Texas at 577, followed by SMU (584), Texas-Arlington (585), Lamar (587), Sam Houston State (588), Texas-San Antonio (598), Rice (599), Texas State (599), Houston (610) and Texas-El Paso (620).