CARROLLTON, Texas- The Texas A&M men's golf team is in sixth place, but only seven strokes off the lead after the opening round of the Maridoe Intercollegiate. Junior Brandon Smith is tied for eighth after an opening-round 71.
"Maridoe is one of the most challenging, difficult courses in the state of Texas, and definitely the one of the toughest we've played so far," head coach JT Higgins said. "It's going to test every part of your game, physically, mentally and emotionally. Today, I think the course got us a little bit. We played pretty well for the most part, but when we made our mistakes, we put up some big numbers, just way too many for us to be successful."
Four Aggies rank in the top 20 individually after one trip through the par 70 / 7,017-yard Maridoe Golf Club. In addition to Smith at 1-over, Dan Erickson, Sam Bennett and Walker Lee each shot identical 4-over 74s to tie for 20th. Reese Ramsey is tied for 52nd at 8-over par.
"I'm really proud of all of the guys for battling, nobody gave in and quit, and that's the mark of a championship team," Higgins said. "They're going to come back, they're a really resilient group. They're going to battle for us tomorrow."
Texas A&M shot a 13-over 293 in the opening round, and is only three shots away from the top 3. Host school North Texas leads the event a 6-over par, with North Texas' Thomas Rosenmuller, UT Arlington's Paul Gonzalez and Costal Carolina's States Fort all tied for the individual lead at 2-under.
"There's still 36 holes of golf left, and we didn't play very well today, but we're still in the hunt," Higgins added. "This golf course isn't going to let people run away and hide on you. We just got to do a better job the next two days of putting the ball in play off the tee, playing out of the fairway, and not giving so many shots back at one time."
The Aggies return for the second round of the 54-hole tournament starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Live scoring is available at golfstat.com, and live updates can be found on Twitter at @aggiemensgolf.
"Maridoe is one of the most challenging, difficult courses in the state of Texas, and definitely the one of the toughest we've played so far," head coach JT Higgins said. "It's going to test every part of your game, physically, mentally and emotionally. Today, I think the course got us a little bit. We played pretty well for the most part, but when we made our mistakes, we put up some big numbers, just way too many for us to be successful."
Four Aggies rank in the top 20 individually after one trip through the par 70 / 7,017-yard Maridoe Golf Club. In addition to Smith at 1-over, Dan Erickson, Sam Bennett and Walker Lee each shot identical 4-over 74s to tie for 20th. Reese Ramsey is tied for 52nd at 8-over par.
"I'm really proud of all of the guys for battling, nobody gave in and quit, and that's the mark of a championship team," Higgins said. "They're going to come back, they're a really resilient group. They're going to battle for us tomorrow."
Texas A&M shot a 13-over 293 in the opening round, and is only three shots away from the top 3. Host school North Texas leads the event a 6-over par, with North Texas' Thomas Rosenmuller, UT Arlington's Paul Gonzalez and Costal Carolina's States Fort all tied for the individual lead at 2-under.
"There's still 36 holes of golf left, and we didn't play very well today, but we're still in the hunt," Higgins added. "This golf course isn't going to let people run away and hide on you. We just got to do a better job the next two days of putting the ball in play off the tee, playing out of the fairway, and not giving so many shots back at one time."
The Aggies return for the second round of the 54-hole tournament starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Live scoring is available at golfstat.com, and live updates can be found on Twitter at @aggiemensgolf.