With a Tradition Club record setting 27-under par score, the No. 2 Texas A&M men’s golf team took home the win on Wednesday at the NCAA Bryan Regional Championship and will advance to the NCAA Championships next week.
A&M head coach, J.T Higgins said he is proud of the way his team performed and why winning on their home turf was the icing on the cake.
“Well getting back the National Championship has been the goal all year,” Higgins said. “Just finishing Top 5 here would’ve been fantastic but winning on our home golf course is amazing. The guys were great this week, so consistent and solid throughout. I just couldn’t be more proud of them.”
The Aggies finished with a team score of 837 (-27), securing the sixth school record for A&M this season. This score surpassed the 846 (-18) score and Traditions Club previous record made by Alabama during the 2013 Aggie Invitational.
A&M will advance along with Clemson, Baylor, UCLA, and Kentucky. Clemson finished second in the regional just nine strokes behind the Aggies. Baylor finished third at 7-under par, while Kentucky rounded out the top five with 10-over par.
A&M junior Chandler Phillips was at the top of the board after going 11-under par and locking in his fourth title of the season. The upcoming NCAA championships will be Phillips second appearance during his collegiate career.
Phillips said he was pleased with his putting for the day and deemed it his best tournament of the spring, if not in his career.
“I putted really well. [Laughs] My putter saved me,” Phillips said. “I didn’t hit it real great. I made a lot of puts. I don’t know what my strokes game putting was this week, but it had to be probably the best tournament I’ve had maybe this spring, maybe forever. I don’t know, but it was really good.
Sophomore Brandon Smith was the next Aggie behind Phillips after tying for second at 10-under par. This made for Smith’s highest finish during his time at A&M. Fellow teammates, Andrew Paysse finished 5-under, Dan Erickson at 1-under par, and Walker Lee shared 32nd place with 5-over par.
As far as the kind of team A&M is taking to the NCAA Championship, Higgins said that all five players contribute to the team’s success and this for them to take off some pressure from individual players.
“When we win, it’s because all five guys are in it. I know Walker [Lee]’s disappointed that he didn’t shoot any scores under par, but every day he was right around even par coming down the stretch. It takes so much pressure off of everybody else when all five guys play a really solid golf tournament,” Higgins said. “We had lots of rounds under par from different guys and that’s the kind of team we are. Chandler [Phillips] is definitely one of the best players in the world, but we surrounded him with a lot of really, really good solid players that are capable of putting low scores up any given day. When they all do that, we are really one of the better teams in the country.”
The Aggies will head to Stillwater, Oklahoma to compete in the NCAA championships with 30 other teams at the Karsten Creek Golf Course on Friday, May 25.