Heading into the final round of the Aggie Invitational, the Texas A&M men’s golf team appeared poised to cap off its home event at the Traditions golf club, with both individual and team victories. But then, Easter Sunday happened, and the Aggies ultimately finished 5th place.

Junior Ben Crancer recorded seven birdies in his second round Saturday to card a -6 (66), -3 overall for the tournament, and established a one stroke lead over California’s freshman K.K. Limbhasut.

However, Crancer struggled to save par coming out of the gate Sunday, carding three double bogeys, three bogeys and no birdies or eagles to post +9 (45) at the turn. Crancer did some damage control on the back nine, however, sprinkling in four birdies and five pars to bring his 18 hole score back to a respectable +5 (77), +2 for the tournament, but unfortunately this would not be enough to fend off Limbhasut.

Limbhasut fired a solid final round of Even par (72), but this score is a bit deceiving, as he did not stroll through all 18 holes of the Jack Nicklaus designed course without encountering a little adversity of his own. Limbhasut recorded four bogeys and one double bogey, but made six birdies, three on each side of the turn, to neutralize any thought of him giving away the top spot on the leaderboard.

Limbhasut’s final round settled him at -2 for the tournament and helped him secure the Invitational outright by two strokes over Arkansas’ junior Kolton Crawford and by four strokes over A&M’s Crancer, who ended up dropping two spots on the leaderboard into a tie for third with Texas Tech’s freshman Wes Artac.

Crancer’s fellow teammate, sophomore Jake Goodman, was the only other Aggie to finish in the top ten after he carded a -1 (71) on Sunday to finish at +6 and surge 16 spots upward on the leaderboard into a  tie for tenth place.

As a team, A&M also faltered on Sunday, backing up their -1 (287), a tournament low, from second round action with a +16 (304) on Sunday, +30 overall, to fall ten strokes behind eventual champion No. 16 Oklahoma.

The Aggies, Sooners and the Aggies of New Mexico State had all been tied for first entering the final round of play.

However, Oklahoma’s Sunday round of +6 (294), placed them at +20 for the tournament and safely positioned A&M in first place by three strokes over second place Texas Tech, who shot Even par (288) to claim second at +23
The Aggies return to the links next Sunday, April 12 for the Reveille Challenge before heading to St. Simons Island, Georgia for the Southeastern Conference Championships on April 17.