OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – The Texas A&M men's golf team holds a share of 11th place after the opening round of the Olympia Fields Country Club Fighting Illini Invitational.
Battling rainy conditions, the Aggies turned in a team round of 304 Friday on the North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club to end play alongside Colorado and Michigan at 24-over par. Virginia Tech, meanwhile, sits atop the team standings at 11-over par giving the Hokies a two-stroke lead over Florida State (293, +13) and a three-stroke advantage over tournament-host Illinois (294, +14) and Stanford (294, +14).
“We just weren't tough enough today,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “That's a good thing to learn early and we are going to work on that. Certainly, this course is going to help us get better and we're going to take a lot from this experience. This isn't the start we were looking for but at the same time, we've got two more rounds here and we're going to try to make some adjustments and get better.”
Junior Adrià Arnaus (73, +3) carded the Aggies' lowest round of the day, finishing with two birdies against five bogies to sit in a tie for 14th place at three-over par.
Fellow junior Andrew Lister (75, +5) shot one-over par (36) on the back nine Friday to end play with a share of 27th place, while freshmen Andrew Paysse (78) and Cameron Champ (78) each sit in 52nd place at eight-over par.
“Really proud of Adrià, he played a strong round today,” Higgins added. “Three over under these conditions on this course is a really solid effort. Everyone else kept it together pretty well for the most part. When you play a course like this, a U.S. Open-caliber course, and then you throw in some weather conditions, it's going to test every part of your game, both physically and mentally.”
Rounding out the Texas A&M lineup was junior Ben Crancer, who shot an opening-round 87.
The player leaderboard featured only two players at-or-below par after 18 holes of competition as Trevor Cone (68) of Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State's Wyndham Clark (69) own the top two spots at two-under and one-under par, respectively.
The Aggies return to the links Saturday morning for the event's second round and will begin teeing off at hole #10 alongside golfers from Connecticut and Texas at 10:30 a.m. (CT).