A final round of +3, 291 at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii capped off another week of marked improvement for the No. 49 Texas A&M men’s golf team, whose cumulative score of +8 (872) clinched an outright fourth place finish.
Texas A&M, despite being 20 strokes behind the tournament’s now five time defending champion, the University of California (852), captured the team’s strongest finish in the standard three round, 54 hole format this season and garnered the approval of head coach J.T. Higgins.
“This is a really solid finish for us and it shows that we’re heading in the right direction,” Higgins said. “We need to play this kind of golf the rest of the semester if we want to reach our goals.”
The tournament effort saw two different Aggies capture top 10 finishes out of the 93 player individual field, but no one was able to catch up to California’s Shotaro Ban. Cal’s Co-Most Improved Player of 2012-13 season snagged the top leaderboard spot with an opening round of -5 (67) and did not look back, firing supporting rounds of even par (72) and -3 (69) to notch a two stroke edge for the tournament’s title.
Junior Adrià Arnaus delivered a notable performance for the Aggies by stringing together three consecutive rounds of even par or better (70, 72, 70) at the par 72, Wailua golf course, which sported a 75.32 scoring average on the week. The seasoned veteran scrapped for 34 total pars, sprinkled in 11 birdies, an eagle, and played the course’s four par fives in -6 fashion on the week. His performance, which marks his best of the 2014-15 campaign, launched himself atop the Texas A&M leaderboard and into a tie for third overall at the tournament.
Senior Greg Yates carded a final round, -2 (70) to finish the tournament in red numbers at -1 (215). His final round push secured the tenth place position and the second best score of eight Aggies competing in the event.
“I’m really proud of our upperclassmen and the way they played,” Higgins said. “Greg and Adrià put the team on their shoulders and brought us home. Hopefully, our younger guys can learn from them.”