The No. 8 Texas A&M men’s golf team wrapped up play at the Sea Best Invitational on Tuesday, Feb. 1 in Florida, finishing in seventh place. This is a step back for the Aggies who finished first in 2020 at the previous invitational.
The maroon and white finished the first day of the tournament shooting 15-over, placing them in sixth place of 13 teams on the field. The College of Charleston took first place at 7-over, putting the Aggies eight shots behind them.
Despite not having a strong start in the competition, freshman Phichaksn Maichon recorded his best score of the season tying for 19th place at 3-over with a total score of 143 by the end of Day 1.
“We weren’t very efficient around the greens and we had several 3-putts,” coach Brian Kortan told 12thman.com. “All in all, it wasn’t a great start, but we played really well in the afternoon. We still have a chance to win a golf tournament. I like this team, and I like this group. I expect them to get after it tomorrow. We are going to have to play great to win the tournament, but that is why you show up.”
On the second and final day of the tournament, the Aggies finished seventh overall in the competition at 19-over, putting them 13 shots behind the Florida Gators, the first place team and tournament winner.
Fifth-year Walker Lee kept the maroon and white in the tournament tying for 15th place at 4-over, and Maichon followed behind him tying for 21st place at 5-over.
“When we leave town, we want to win. We want to give ourselves a chance to win, and going in to today we did,” Kortan told 12thman.com. “We had to play a great round of golf, but we weren’t clean enough around the greens. We weren’t efficient. We need to be more efficient on the greens and we need to battle until the end. We didn’t finish off any of the rounds the way we would like to finish, and we need to do a better job of that.”
“The guys always fight and they play hard, and there is no give up in them, but we need to execute better and play cleaner golf to be where we want to be in the end.”
The Aggies will next travel to Hawaii to compete at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate from Feb. 17-19.