No. 15 Texas A&M men’s golf hit the green at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, competing from Oct. 13-15. The Aggies previously tied for ninth place at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational and struggled to find momentum during the three-day tournament in Georgia, finishing in eighth place with a total score of 861 at 3-under par.
No. 14 Virginia won the tournament with a total score of 839, while East Tennessee State moved down two spots to finish in third after leading the first two days. The Aggies were successful in defeating No. 5 Tennessee, the only other SEC team in the tournament, by one stroke.
Junior Phichaksn Maichon and senior Daniel Rodrigues tied for ninth place with a score of 211 at 5-under par, finishing within the top 10 overall to keep the Aggies in the competition.
Sophomore Jamie Montojo finished tied for 30th with a score of 216. Following behind were freshman Aaron Pounds and junior Vishnu Sadagopan, tied at 65th and 67th, respectively.
The Aggies finished in fourth place on the first day of the tournament with a total score of 282 at 6-under par. Tied in fourth place with A&M was Tennessee while East Tennessee State led in first place with a total score of 275 at 13-under par.
Montojo and Maichon finished the first round of play tied for seventh place. Both players shot a 3-under par with a total score of 69. Also leading the Aggies was Rodrigues, who tied for 13th place at 2-under par.
“Those are guys that we’re going to lean on to lead us through the season,” coach Brian Kortan said. “It was good to see them have nice rounds today. [Montojo, Maichon and Rodrigues] will tell you that they left a ton out there. They made a few birdies in the last hole to get us in position where we are today. There’s a ton of golf to play and those are competitive dudes that don’t like to get beat, so hopefully that’ll kick in a little bit tomorrow and we’ll get after it.”
Pounds and Sadagopan also followed in the top five for the Maroon and White, tied at 55th place with a total score of 74.
On the second day of competition, Rodrigues moved up seven spots and led the squad tied for sixth place at 4-under 140 and recorded five birdies. Seeing double for the second day in the row were Montojo and Maichon. The duo tied for 12th place at 2-under 142.
Once again, rounding out the Aggies top five were Sadagopan and Pounds, who tied for 55th and 64th place, respectively.
“We got off to a rough start,” Kortan told 12thman.com. “We kind of righted the ship and hung in there. The guys really did a good job of steadying themselves and posting what I thought was a pretty good score.”
The Aggies will next hit the road to Greenville, South Carolina to compete in the Furman Intercollegiate on Oct. 22-23.