It took a late comeback effort, but the No. 12 Texas A&M men’s golf team emerged victorious at the Sea Best Invitational that took place at the TPC Sawgrass-Dye’s Valley Course in Ponte Verde Beach, Florida. The Aggies finished the tournament with a 13-under par score that was good enough to win the 14-team tournament by two strokes.
The Aggies started out the final round with a one-stroke lead over Florida as both teams had separated themselves from the rest of the pack and went into the final round with team scores of 7-under and 6-under, respectively. In the final round, the Aggies faced an early deficit by falling behind on the front nine, but rallied in the back nine to post the day’s low round of 6-under 274.
The final round saw four Aggies post under-par scores that were the difference in getting the win. The low rounds of the day were had by junior Walker Lee and senior Dan Erickson as both shot rounds of 2-under 68. Both freshman Jimmy Lee and sophomore Sam Bennett had final rounds of 1-under 69 that were crucial in the Aggies slim margin of victory. The turning point in Tuesday’s final round came on holes 12 through 16 were both Erickson and Jimmy Lee birdied four of the five holes to give the Aggies the late lead over the Gators.
The victory was a true team effort every player finished inside the top-20 in a field of 84 participants. Walker Lee and redshirt freshman William Paysse both tied for third place in the individual leaderboard as both finished the tournament at 4-under. Paysse, who along with senior Brandon Smith competed over the weekend in the prestigious Jones Cup Invitational amateur tournament, had the low round of the tournament with a 63 in the second round.
The other final positions on the individual leaderboard were Erickson who finished tied for eight with at 2-under, Jimmy Lee finished in a tie for 12th at even, and Bennett ended up in a tie for 19th at 1-over. Smith competed as a non-scoring individual and shot 6-over ending up in a tie for 40th place.The Aggies worst round of the tournament was a 2-over 72 as consistently good play was on display this week.
“This was probably one of the best team wins I’ve ever been a part of,” A&M head coach J.T. Higgins told 12man.com. “To see all five guys finish in the top 20 is pretty impressive and the worst round we had was a 72. They competed so hard and they pushed each other through the tournament. It was a total team effort.”
The Aggies next tournament will see their next action February 20-22 when they travel to Manoa, Hawaii to the John A. Burns Intercollegiate tournament where they look to avenge last year’s second place finish.