TUCSON, Ariz. — Junior Ty Dunlap collected birdies on four of his final eight holes Friday to card an opening round of two-under par as the Texas A&M men's golf team opened play at the National Invitational Tournament.
The Aggies (287, -1) sit in a tie for sixth place after one round on the Catalina Course at Omni Tucson National while third-ranked California leads the field following a team round of 268 (-20). Arizona (-7), Oklahoma State (-6), UNLV (-4) and San Diego State (-4) round out the top five in the team standings.
“We had a chance to have a pretty nice round today but we gave some shots away coming down the stretch, especially on No. 18,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “We have to finish a little bit better tomorrow for us to have a chance, but we're heading in the right direction. Today wasn't a bad round, but we'll see what we can do tomorrow and try to move up the leaderboard.”
Dunlap (70, -2) is the highest-ranking Aggie on the individual leaderboard as the Westlake, Texas, native concluded the day with a share of 12th place.
Senior Johannes Veerman fired a one-under par 71 to end the round in a tie for 17th while teammate Ben Crancer (72, E) was just one shot back in 26th.
A pair of Aggies finished the day in a tie for 44th as both Greg Yates and Andrew Lister, who is competing as an individual, carded two-over par rounds of 74.
Sophomore Adrià Arnaus represented the final member of the A&M line-up with a three-over par 75 to earn a share of 54th place.
The tournament resumes Saturday with the Aggie golfers stepping to the tee box alongside golfers from San Diego State and UNLV beginning at 9:45 a.m. (CT). Live scoring for the event will be available at GolfStat.com.