The No. 18 Texas A&M men’s golf team completed their first tournament of the season at the Arizona Intercollegiate led by senior Chandler Phillips won in runaway fashion, finishing the tournament at 19-under par and eight shots clear of the field.
As a team, A&M finished in a tie for fourth with Iowa State at 20-under par (832), while hosts Arizona went on to win the tournament at 37-under par.
After rounds of 67 and 63 on day one of the tournament, Phillips found himself with a three-shot lead heading into the final round. The senior continued his impressive play through the final 18 holes on Tuesday, carding a seven-under par score of 64 to break the school tournament scoring record. This win was the seventh of his career, also an A&M record.
“I played really well,” Phillips said in a video on Twitter. “Everything was kind of going my way from the start. I putted really good, hit my irons really good and just kept the ball in play all week.”
The Huntsville native was first in par 4 scoring (10-under) for the week and totaled 24 birdies over his 54 holes.
Sam Bennet managed a tie for 16th at five-under par. The freshman was tied for third entering the final round, but took a step back with a closing score of 73 (two-over par). Bennet played the par 5’s well this week, totaling four-under par and was one of a handful of players to hole an eagle.
Sophomore Walker Lee shot a final round 69 to climb back to even par for the tournament and finish in a tie for 36th. Both sophomore Reese Ramsey (7-over par) and junior Brandon Smith (11-over par) struggled to get anything going this week, finishing in ties for 63rd and 74th, respectively.
The Aggies’ next action will come at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii on Feb. 21-23.