The Texas A&M men’s golf team travels to Dallas today to compete in the Red River Classic with a two-fold mission — to erase memories of last year’s No. 12 finish at the tournament and to improve on their disappointing showing at the Tucker Invitational last month.
Last year at the Red River Classic, the University of Southern California took the team title, and the Aggies finished 27 strokes back.
There is motivation to improve on that finish. But more importantly to the Aggies is bettering their fourteenth-place showing at the Tucker Invitational.
“Expectations were really high for our first tournament,” said Stephen Reed, a sophomore general studies major. “I think with all the expectations, we may have come out and not focused as much on our shots. We got rattled, and golf isn’t a game that you can play well when you’re rattled. I would definitely say we were disappointed. We have guys with good experience.”
“I think things are so much different than last year,” said Dwayne Morley, a junior business management major. “Last year, we played a defensive style, not trying to make any mistakes.
This year, coach tells us to go out and fire at every pin and be as aggressive as you can. It’s an adjustment.”
Morley and Reed led the Aggies in scoring at the Tucker Invitational. Morley finished in a tie for 37th and Reed in a tie for 46th.
Senior Sean Gilliland and freshman Rand Arbuckle were six strokes behind Reed in a tie for 73rd, and senior Clay Fullick tied for 98th place.
The Aggies have a new coach this year in J.T. Higgins, who left the University of New Mexico over the summer to become the head coach at A&M. Higgins advanced to the NCAA Championships twice in his four years at New Mexico and brought with him high expectations.
Reed said that also might explain their performance at the Tucker.
“People expected a lot of us this year because of coach coming down here, after he’d been in the top 20 almost every other year he’d been coaching,” Reed said. “We didn’t focus as much on playing, we were a little worried. You’ve just got to strike the ball and move on.”
To finish better at the Red River Classic this week, Reed and Morley will have to play well and begin to fill leadership roles on the team.
“I feel like we’re two guys that need to be leaders on the course, because you can usually count on us,” Morley said.
The Red River Classic begins today at the Dallas Athletic Club with 36 holes and finishes with 18 holes on Tuesday.