Texas A&M
Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate
Aggies Finish Third at Bulls Bay
Mar 27, 2012 | Men's Golf
The Aggies, along with the rest of the field, battled windy conditions on Tuesday-only three of the 14 teams in the field shot better than 10-over par in the final round. A&M carded an 11-over 299 to finish the tournament at 2-over 866 (289-278-299), three shots back of No. 24 Virginia (863, -1). No. 3 Auburn took the team title with a 10-under 854.
"What you hope for on a windy day is you put together an even-par round and everyone else comes back to you, but we just couldn't get anything going early," head coach J.T. Higgins said. "There just weren't a lot of opportunities today. We didn't make a whole lot of big numbers, but just a bogey here and there. No one played bad golf, we just couldn't anything going. The biggest thing I was proud of was the way we finished. We got to 10- or 12-over very early in the round and kept it together. It would have been pretty easy for them to tank it and get out of here once they realized we weren't winning the tournament, but they battled through it."
Kentucky (869, +5) finished in fourth place, followed by No. 18 LSU (+11), South Carolina (+13), N.C. State (+18), North Carolina (+20), Ole Miss (+28), two-time defending national champion Augusta State (+30), Wake Forest (+38), Wisconsin (+38), College of Charleston (+41), Maryland (+47) and Wofford (+47).
"It was just hard to make birdies today," Higgins said. "I thought the course setup also contributed to that too-on the into-the-wind holes all pins were back and on the down-wind holes all the pins were up, so you couldn't get anything close. But we played really solid golf overall this week. We gave ourselves a chance to win going into the final round, and that's something we're always trying to do."
Individually, the Aggies placed three in the top 12-led by senior All-American Jordan Russell's fifth-place showing with a 2-under 214 (71-68-75). Junior All-American Cameron Peck finished ninth, two shots back with an even-par 216 (70-67-79), while senior Geoff Shaw finished in 12th at 2-over 218 (72-72-74).
True freshman Ty Dunlap ended the week tied for 25th with a 6-over 222 (76-71-75), with junior Drew Evans (82-77-75=234, +18) rounding out the Aggie contingent.
"I love the way Jordan and Cam are playing," Higgins said. "Cam had a rough day today but he's playing some of the best golf he's played in college. They are both starting to peak at the right time. If we get everyone else going we're going to be in pretty good shape."
Texas A&M returns to action in two weeks when the Aggies participate in The All-American Intercollegiate, scheduled for April 9-10 at The East Course in The Woodlands, Texas.
Players Mentioned
