The Texas A&M men’s golf team partook in the U.S. Collegiate Championship this weekend, hoping to end their fall season on a high note. The tournament played out on the par 72 Lakeside Course in Alpharetta, Ga. and featured 12 ranked teams among the field of 15 participants. After a promising first two days, A&M collapsed in the third and final round to finish the tournament in ninth place, 20 strokes behind first place Texas.
A&M played one of their best rounds of the season on the opening day of the tournament, ending the first round in sole possession of third place. The Aggies finished the round seven strokes under par as a group (281), mostly on the strength of a solid back nine (8 under par as a unit). Three aggies- junior Adria Arnaus, junior Andrew Lister and freshman Andrew Paysse- finished day one in the top -15 on the individual leaderboard.
The Aggies found themselves nine strokes behind first place heading into the second round and responded by putting cutting the deficit to just four. Arnaus shot a 71 on day two and managed to claim a portion of sixth place while Lister held strong at 14^th place through two-thirds of the competition. As a team, A&M remained in third place after shooting a 289 on the day and finished at six under par overall.
The third and final day brought disappointment for the Aggies. After entering the day in good standing, A&M quickly fell out of contention, falling six spots on the leaderboard and hitting a tournament worse 5 over par (293) as a team. Senior Greg Yates was the only Aggie under par on the day (-5) and the only one not to fall in the individual ranks. His round of 66 was the second best individual round of the day and catapulted him 22 spots up the leaderboard to finish tied for eighth place. First place Texas and runner up Virginia (the two teams paired with A&M for the final round) ran away from the competition after recording scores of -11 (277) on the day to finish at -21 and -20, respectively.
This tournament marks the end to the Aggies fall schedule, and A&M will return to the greens next semester for their spring season.