LIHUE, Hawaii – The Texas A&M men's golf team sits in third place at the John Burns Intercollegiate after turning in a team round of even par Wednesday during the event's opening round.
“I thought we had a really good team effort today with four guys right around par allowing us to shoot even as a team,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “We got off to an awful start and found ourselves nine-over early, so to get it back to even par and move up to third showed a lot of resiliency, fight and heart. I was really happy with that.”
The Aggies (288, E) will enter Thursday's second round at Wailua Golf Course just six shots off the pace set by tournament leader California (282, -6). Second place UNLV (287, -1), meanwhile, was just one stroke better than A&M Monday, while UTEP (289, +1) and Virginia (291, +3) rounded out the top five in the team standings.
On the individual leaderboard, junior Adrià Arnaus (70, -2) carded four birdies on the day as well as an eagle on the par-five, 535-yard ninth hole to end the round with a share of fourth place.
Cal's Shotaro Ban leads the individual standings after firing a five-under par 67 on Wednesday.
A&M senior Greg Yates (71, -1) also holds a spot in the top 10 as he was just one shot back of Arnaus in a tie for eighth. Freshman Connor Black (72, E) was at even par on the day to own a share of 16th, while fellow rookies Cameron Champ (75, +3) and Andrew Paysse (78, +6) rounded out A&M's five-man lineup in 39th and 69th place, respectively.
“Adrià continues to play really solid golf and I was especially proud of Connor and Greg for the rounds they turned in today,” Higgins added. “Hopefully, tomorrow we can get off to a better start and put ourselves in a position to compete for a championship on the final day.”
A trio of Aggies -- Ben Crancer (80, +8), Jake Goodman (78, +6) and Andrew Lister (77, +5) -- played as individuals with Lister being the highest-ranking member of the group on the leaderboard in 60th place.
Live scoring for Thursday's second round can be found at GolfStat.com.