June 1, 2010
The defending NCAA Champion Texas A&M men's golf team challenged for the lead in the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Championships on Tuesday at The Honors Course.
The Aggies shot a 3-under par 285 and stand in fourth place, just two shots behind co-leaders Oklahoma State (-5) and Florida State (-5) and one stroke behind third-place Oregon (-4). All four teams were under the old course record of 286, which was set by Arizona State at the 1996 NCAA Championships. With the top eight teams after 54 holes advancing to match play, the next four teams were Arizona State (-2), Clemson (-2), Florida (-1) and Augusta State (-1).
“I am really happy with where we are today,” Aggie head coach J.T. Higgins said. “I don't think we did anything special, but we played really solid golf and hung in there all day. We were 3-over early and got it back and ended up 3-under. That's with our No. 2 player having a really rough day. I think we played the par 5s even and all of our guys can get there in two on every one of them. I think we have a chance to shoot some really low scores the next couple of days."
Higgins praised The Honors Course, which allowed just eight teams to post under-par rounds.
“It is just a great test of golf,” Higgins said. “You have to be really long and accurate off the tee. You have to be really precise and accurate with your irons. There is trouble everywhere. I think it is a great test. It is going to reward the best teams and the best players are going to separate themselves by the end of the week.”
The Aggies were paced by junior Nacho Elvira and freshman Andrea Pavan posted a 1-under 71 and is tied for 25th. Junior Conrad Shindler shot a 2-over 74 and is tied for 65th. Sophomore Jordan Russell was 7-over with a 79 and is tied for 139th.
Rounding out the rest of the team standings were Washington (+1), Texas (+2), Georgia Tech (+2), Kent State (+4), Stanford (+4), North Florida (+4), California (+5), Baylor (+6), UNLV (+6), San Diego (+6), UCLA (+6), USC (+7), Oregon State (+7), Duke (+8), Georgia Southern (+9), Tennessee (+9), Virginia (+12), Penn State (+13), TCU (+14), Texas Tech (+14) and LSU (+15).
A&M will be paired with USC and Augusta State in Wednesday's second round and will begin teeing off at 6:47 a.m. (central time) on the first hole.