Texas A&M
Valspar Collegiate Invitational
Yates Wins Valspar Collegiate; Aggies Finish Fifth
Mar 24, 2015 | Men's Golf
PALM CITY, Fla. – Senior Greg Yates captured his third collegiate win Tuesday at Floridian Golf Club, finishing atop the 73-player field while the Texas A&M men's golf team recorded a fifth-place showing at the event.
“Greg was great throughout the entire tournament, putting up three straight rounds of 67,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “He hit a ton of great shots but what was most impressive was that when he did hit a bad shot he was able to recover and never let a poor shot get him down. He always came back with a great shot. His performance this week was really impressive against a quality field.”
Yates (67-67-67=201) piled up a tournament-leading 22 birdies to lead the Aggies, who paced the entire field with a total of 70 birdies as a team, and finish atop the player standings at 12-under par. The Mansfield, Texas, native previously claimed medalist honors at the 2014 Sea Best Invitational as a junior and the 2011 HBU Men's Intercollegiate during his freshman campaign.
A&M junior Adrià Arnaus (73-71-69=213, E) continued his strong season by firing a two-under par 69 during the final round to finish in a tie for 20th place and notch his team-leading sixth top-20 showing of the year.
In the final team standings, the Aggies (290-289-277=856, +4) climbed two spots on the leaderboard Tuesday after sharing the day's lowest round of 277 with South Carolina. Second-ranked Florida State took home the team title at 17-under par, fending off LSU, South Carolina and South Florida, who rounded out the top four in the standings.
“Today was very positive,” Higgins said. “We played the best round of the day to beat the top-ranked team in the nation (Illinois) as well as several other ranked teams and really played much more to our abilities than we have all season. I think we're on the right track and the guys saw what they can do when they're focused and determined.”
Junior Ben Crancer (74-75-71=220, +7) was at even par on Tuesday to finish with a share of 38th place while rookie Andrew Paysse (76-76-70=222, +9) carded a third round of one-under par to earn a tie for 45th.
Junior Andrew Lister (82-76-73=231, +18), meanwhile, rounded out the A&M contingency at the event in 67th place.
Up next for the Texas A&M golfers will be their lone home event of the season as they host the 2015 Aggie Invitational at Traditions Golf Club April 4-5.
“We've got a big couple weeks coming up,” Higgins added. “The Aggie Invitational is always a great event and we've always been very successful playing on our home course in the past. There's a great field coming in and we're going to have to be at our best but I like our chances at Traditions.”
Players Mentioned
