The No. 6 Texas A&M men’s golf team closed its fall schedule with an eighth-place finish at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational in Alpharetta, Ga., on Sunday, Oct. 23.
A&M finished the three-day tournament at 7-under par behind champion Stanford who finished at 23-under par, Georgia Tech at 22-under par and Pepperdine at 22-under par by a stroke.
On the final day of the tournament sophomore Vishnu Sadagopan and fifth-year senior Sam Bennett carded 2-under-par scores of 70, and sophomore Phichaksn Maichon finished at 1-under par with a score of 71.
Sadagopan ended the tournament in the top 20 of the individual leaderboard, tied for fifth at 8-under for his career-best finish with 3-under-par rounds of 71-67-70.
“It was great to see Vish [Sadagopan] play well,” head coach Brian Kortan told 12thMan.com. “Coach [Matt] Fast and I thought this would be a really good course for him, and he took advantage of it. I’m proud of that performance, and I think it shows our depth and who can compete at a high level for us.”
The Aggies struggled through the first 18 holes of the tournament, ending Day 1 in 14th place.
“We were in good position, but we hit a bad patch and let it snowball,” Kortan told 12thMan.com. “No one could hit a shot or make a putt to change our momentum. This type of round is an outlier with this group. We’re going to stick to what we do best, and that’s string together good shots. Our goal for [the second day was] play our game, shoot a good score and get back into this tournament.”
On Day 1, Sadagopan tied for 25th at 1-under par with a score of 71 and was the only Aggie under par for the round. Other contributed scores included Maichon at 3-over 75, senior William Paysse at 4-over 76 and junior Daniel Rodrigues at 5-over 77.
A&M bounced back on the second day of the tournament led by a strong round from Bennett. The Aggies finished with the second-lowest round of the day.
The Aggies ended the second round at 14-under par with a score of 274, jumping four spots to 10th in team standings.
“If we’re the kind of team that we think we are, this was the way we needed to respond,” Kortan told 12thMan.com. “We shot our way out the tournament yesterday [Friday], but we can still beat a bunch of good teams, so that will be our mindset heading into the final round.”
All five Aggies were at par or better in the second round, including Bennett who posted the low-round of the day at 7-under par with a score of 65.
Bennett’s Round-2 comeback moved him 33 spots on the individual leaderboard to end the day tied for 38th. Sadagopan followed his first round with a 5-under 67, Paysse finished at 2-under 70, while Maichon and Rodrigues posted even-par scores of 72.
“It was nice to see Sam [Bennett] put together a complete round,” Kortan said. “Vish [Sadagopan] had another great 18 holes, and he’s having an impressive tournament. When you have all five guys at par or better, that’s a good recipe for success.”
The Aggies will be back in action on Jan. 30-31, 2023, at the Arizona Intercollegiate in Tucson, Ariz.
A&M will compete next year at the over-7,000-yard, par-72, Midwestern-style Tucson Country Club. The tree-lined course dates back to 1947 and is considered the best walking course in Tucson, according to TucsonCountryClub.com.
Follow the team @AggieMensGolfon on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Emily Denton is an agricultural communications and journalism senior and contributed this piece from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.