Texas A&M
Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate
A&M Finishes Fifth in California
Feb 26, 2012 | Men's Golf
AGGIES FINISH FIFTH AT WYOMING DESERT INTERCOLLEGIATE
TEXAS A&M MEN'S GOLF
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sunday, February 26, 2012
PALM DESERT, Calif.-The 13th-ranked Texas A&M men's golf team carded the field's lowest round on Sunday and one of the tournament's lowest overall en route to a fifth-place finish at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate at the Classic Club.
The Aggies shot a 7-under 281 in the tournament's third and final round, finishing the weekend at 2-under 862 (287-294-281). The result gives A&M five top-five finishes in six tournaments this season.
"You know, I'm really proud of the guys for fighitng back and having low final round," head coach J.T. Higgins said. "That's important to be able to compete and move up the leaderboard regardless of how you played to start. You always want to finish strong and that's great, but we continually put ourselves behind the 8-ball with the slow starts. A lot of it is bad mistakes and being careless with shots, and sometimes late in the game is a little too late to realize how important and precious those shots are. We're gonna work on that."
No. 15 UNLV won the event by seven strokes, turning in a 20-under 844. Texas Tech (851, -13) finished second, followed by No. 3 Auburn (-9) and Saint Mary's (-3). SMU tied with the Aggies in fifth, UT Arlington (-1) placed seventh, and No. 18 Kent State (E), Houston (+3) and Baylor (+5) rounded out the top 10.
Senior Jordan Russell was A&M's top individual, shooting a 3-under 213 (70-70-73) to finish eighth overall-four shots back of medalist Kevin Penner of UNLV (209, -7).
Redshirt freshman Greg Yates (71-74-71=216, E) was three shots back of Russell in 21st, while junior Cameron Peck (75-75-67=217, +1) shot the field's best final round to finish 27th overall. Rounding out the Aggie contingent was true freshman Ty Dunlap (72-79-70=221, +5) and senior Geoff Shaw (74-75-81=230, +14).
"We've got some things wrong fundamentally and we have to get a little tougher too in our mental approach." Higgins said. "I think though that by shooting the low final round two events in a row, when the golf course setup is the toughest, shows the kind of talent we have and what we're capable of. We have to do that for all three rounds, not just the last one. But we're going to take that and build on it and get ready for Las Vegas."
Texas A&M returns to action March 9-11 when the Aggies take part in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters in Las Vegas.
