March 27, 2010
The No. 8 Texas A&M men's golf team posted the low round of the day to move into contention at the Linger Longer Invitational on Saturday at The Landing at Reynolds Plantation.
The Aggies were three-under par for the day (285) as they shot up six spots in the team standings to third. At plus-14 for the tournament, A&M will enter the final round trailing No. 2 Oklahoma State (+3) by 11 strokes and No. 24 Alabama (+8) by six strokes.
“That was a terrific team effort today,” Aggie men's golf coach J.T. Higgins said. “Everyone fought really hard and we posted the low round of the day in the toughest conditions. Our first 10-12 holes were played in cold, gusting winds while the leaders played the back nine in relatively good weather. We handled the adversity well and made a good charge up the leaderboard. We are in a good position for the final round and I think the boys feel good about their games right now.”
A trio of Aggies – junior Conrad Shindler, sophomore Jordan Russell and freshman Cameron Peck – posted two-under par scores of 70, which tied for the second-lowest individual rounds of the day. Shindler climbed into a tie for third place at one-under for the tournament (73-70=143). Russell moved up 16 spots into a tie for eighth at 2-over (76-70=146), while Peck climbed a whopping 43 spots into a tie for 15th at 5-over (79-70=149).
Senior Andrea Pavan is in a tie for 35th at plus-8 (77-75=152) and junior Nacho Elvira is in a tie for 52nd at plus-12 (79-77=156).
“I am expecting big days from Nacho and Andrea on Sunday because they are playing really well but suffered a couple of bad breaks,” Higgins said. “Those things tend to even out and I look for them to have a strong finish.”