Texas A&M
NCAA Championship
Peck Sets School Record, Aggies Finish Ninth at NCAA Championships
Jun 02, 2011 | Men's Golf
June 2, 2011
STILLWATER, Okla. - Texas A&M sophomore Cameron Peck set a school record with a third-place finish, but the Aggies fell one spot shy of moving on to match play on Thursday at the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships at Karsten Creek.
Peck (Olympia, Wash.) fired a 1-under 215 (68-74-73) for the week to finish higher than any Aggie has before at the event. He placed four shots back of the medalist, John Peterson of LSU (-5), in a five-way tie for third.
As a team, A&M missed out on advancing to the quarterfinals by the slimmest of margins--one stroke--finishing ninth with a 26-over 890 (289-301-300). Moving on to match play were UCLA (+8), Georgia Tech (+11), Oklahoma State (+15), Illinois (+15), Georgia (+20), Ohio State (+23), Augusta State (+24) and Duke (+25).
The Aggies, however, will end their season with their second top-10 finish in three seasons and eighth overall in program history. Among all collegiate programs, only Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and USC have finished in the top 15 in each of the last four seasons.
Individually, senior Nacho Elvira went 1-over on the day and finished the week in 32nd place with a 6-over 222 (72-77-73). Junior Jordan Russell carded a 9-over 225 (73-77-75) to finish tied for 56th, senior Conrad Shindler tied for 88th with a 13-over 229 (73-77-79), while senior John Hurley finished in a tie for 135th (76-81-84=241).
Two program records fell as the Aggies closed out the year this week. Russell wrapped the season with a 71.59 stroke average--the lowest in program history--while the 2010-11 team's stroke average of 287.12 is the lowest ever recorded by an Aggie squad.
TEXAS A&M COACH J.T. Higgins QUOTES
On missing out on match play by one stroke: "Golf's just the cruelest game. You hit 900 shots, and it comes down to one. Every guy on our team can count 10 places where they could have shaved a shot. It's just heartbreaking when it doesn't go your way. With that said, this is just greatest group of guys I ever had the honor of coaching. They should hold their heads high. They were champions, and we just came out a shot short. It's very hard to swallow. They had a fantastic year, they did everything right and they represented our school fantastically."
On playing hard over the last nine holes: "We stepped up to the challenge, but so did Duke, and Augusta State, and Ohio State. It was just a great finish. Everyone played well, but we were the odd man out. That's the tough part about it. The golf course was extremely difficult and the guys were up to the challenge and never quit. They were never intimidated. They played their hearts out and just came up a little bit short."
On Cameron Peck's finish: "Cam has just played fantastic golf in the postseason for us. He carried us thru regionals and he was the reason we were in this position this week. I'm very proud of the effort he gave. It was a fantastic end of the season and I'm excited for him. He's just a great kid, and he's as disappointed as anybody. As happy as he should be, he knows we were a shot short and he wishes he were a shot better."
