The No. 4 Texas A&M men’s golf team competed in the Callaway Collegiate Match Play Championships for the second year in a row, finishing in fourth place. The tournament provided a preview of the NCAA Championship format with a 16-team field bracket that included nine of the Top-25 teams in the nation.

“This tournament is great preparation for the national championship,” said A&M Head Coach J.T. Higgins. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to play the format against outstanding competition.”
The Aggies entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed and drew the tournament host, Arizona, as a first round match-up. Despite the obvious advantage Arizona had, the Aggies were able to take care of the Wildcats 3-2. Winning matches for the Aggies were freshman Cameron Peck, junior Conrad Shindler and junior Nacho Elvira.
“In the [Arizona] match we played really solid,” Higgins said. “I was proud of the way the other three were able to get us back into the match, and enable us to take control against Arizona.”
Advancing into the second round, the Aggies were able to get revenge against an UNLV team that outlasted the Aggies on March 12-14 to win the Southern Highlands Collegiate tournament. In a head to head match, the Aggies jumped to an early 1-0 lead with a win from sophomore Jordan Russell. After taking a 1-0 lead, the match was called due to darkness with the Aggies leading in three of the remaining four matches. The following day, the Aggies finished off the Rebels for a 4-1 victory advancing to the semi-finals to take on New Mexico.
“We were really shaky early in the match against UNLV,” Higgins said. “We came together and rallied, and just tried to get one back on every hole. We started reeling them in and got back into the lead.”
In the semi-finals, A&M faced a New Mexico team who entered the tournament unranked and seeded No. 15 out of the 16 team field. The Aggies started the match by grabbing a 2-0 lead with quick wins from Shindler and Elvira. However, the Lobos would battle from behind taking the final three matches to defeat the Aggies 3-2.
“It was a terrific match,” Higgins said. “I thought New Mexico played extremely well, but it was a disappointing loss. We just made too many mental errors. New Mexico halved holes with bogeys and won holes with pars, and that¹s just not the way we play.”
New Mexico advanced to the finals and defeated Southern California to capture the tournament title. In the third place match, the Aggies fell to Colorado State 2-2-1 finishing the event in fourth place.
The Aggies have a quick turnaround as they return to action this weekend at the Linger Longer Invitation in Greensboro, Ga.