ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Just four strokes off the top spot on the leaderboard, the Texas A&M men's golf team remains in contention at the U.S. Collegiate as the Aggies ended the second round of play at the Golf Club of Georgia in third place.
“I'm proud of the way we played,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “We were able to cut into the lead significantly and put ourselves in a position to win the golf tournament. We'll play in the final group tomorrow and are within four shots of the lead, so we'll go out and have a great final round and see if we can't get out of here with a win.”
Texas (278-288=566, -10) leads the team standings with Virginia (272-295=567, -9) and Texas A&M (281-289=570, -6) in hot pursuit.
Aggie junior Adrià Arnaus (69-71=140, -4) climbed four spots on the player leaderboard Saturday, firing a 71 to end the day with a share of sixth place.
Denny McCarthy (63-72=135) of Virginia paced the field at nine-under par for the tournament.
“The course played a lot tougher today,” Higgins added. “The wind picked up and was gusty at times so it was something we had to deal with all day. The teams that played later in the day had to deal with it a lot more than the teams that played earlier did. I thought our guys did great and handled it really well. There were several points during the round that things could have gone in the wrong direction, but they really concentrated and made sure they put a good score on the board.”
Texas A&M junior Andrew Lister (70-72=142, -2) holds a spot in the top 20 with a hold of 14th place, while rookie Andrew Paysse (70-74=144, E) sits just two strokes back in 23rd.
Senior Greg Yates (72-73=145, +1) and freshman Connor Black (74-73=147, +3) round out the A&M contingency at the event, holding shares of 30th and 42nd place, respectively.
Texas A&M will have the opportunity to close the gap on Texas and Virginia Sunday morning when the tournament resumes for the third and final round. The Aggies, Longhorns and Cavaliers will be paired with one another and return to the course at 9:10 a.m. (CT) Sunday.