The Texas A&M men’s golf team will travel to Birmingham for the Jerry Pate National Invitational taking place from Nov. 8-10. A practice round will be played Sunday morning, with Round 1 commencing in the afternoon. Round 2 will be played on Monday and Round 3 on Tuesday.
The event is hosted by Alabama at the Old Overton Club. The Aggies will face teams they are all too familiar with as all 14 SEC schools will compete at the invitational. Due to SEC guidelines related to COVID-19, events can only take place with competitors from the SEC or nonconference schools from the region, meaning this is their third tournament competing against the same teams.
Two weeks ago, the A&M men’s golf team competed at the Legends Collegiate Invitational in Franklin, Tenn. The Aggies placed third out of 14 teams with a total of 29 under par. They ranked behind tournament hosts and winners Vanderbilt as well as Georgia.
The Aggies had all five athletes finish in the top 50, with their top golfer of the event, Brandon Smith, tying for third place overall and hitting 12-under (68-63-70), marking the second Aggie to finish in the top five of a tournament this season.
Despite this outstanding performance, A&M coach Brian Kortan said he is expecting more from his team in their travel to Alabama.
“When we leave town, we go to try to win. We don’t settle for good finishes,” Kortan said. “Those are nice, and they look good, and of course you want to finish well, but our guys like to win. We’ve won in the past, and that’s why we tee up.”
The Aggies have placed in the top five in their two events so far this year, improving in place each time. They look to improve going into their last invitational of the season. SEC guidelines related to COVID-19 restrict the golf teams to three team events in the fall, making this their last chance to make an impression.