Some of the premier collegiate golf talent from around the country traveled to the Sunshine State early this week. The lone SEC school that was invited: Texas A&M.
The No. 14 Aggie men’s golf team traveled to the Floridian National Golf Club in Palm City, Florida to close out their last regular season road tournament at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational. The tournament took place on Monday, March 27 and Tuesday, March 28 where the Aggies finished sixth overall.
Day 1 featured a solid start for the Aggies where they stood at 4-under-par and placed seventh at the end of the day. Individually, junior Daniel Rodrigues led the maroon and white on Monday, where he tied for fifteenth at 3-under-par. Sam Bennett, who is in his fifth year of eligibility, finished right behind Rodrigues at 2-under-par.
“Daniel Rodrigues did a good job for us all day and Sam [Bennett] was a couple under par, but we need to clean things up and get compete better throughout the lineup,” coach Brian Kortan said. “We’re an experienced group and we know what it takes to be good and compete against these teams and we know we have to clean some things up, so that’s what we’ll focus on.”
The 18-hole, 6,943-yard golf course is considered one of the most challenging courses in the nation and Kortan shared the same sentiment about focusing on finishing strong the first day despite the rigor of the course and tournament.
“It was a long day on a challenging golf course,” Kortan said. “We played some really good golf in stretches, but we still aren’t doing some things we need to do to compete where we want to compete. We’ll keep working on it and we’ll keep talking about it. We’re going to see some results — it’s going to happen.”
As Day 2 of the tournament commenced, the Aggies improved from the previous day as sophomore Vishnu Sadagopan carried the load for the team in the competitive field. Sadagopan registered a career achievement of finishing 7-under-par in the final round of play.
Sadagopan’s performance came at a pivotal time for the Aggies as the team avoided finishing seventh overall in the tournament. Kortan expressed his praise for the sophomore out of Pearland as he contributed most to the team on the second day.
“Vish carried us today, but we’ve had that happen a few times this year, where someone has shot really low to carry us for a round,” Kortan said. “ Lots of birdies, lots of bogeys, but the guys hung in there. We made some birdies to finish up the round and we tied for sixth in a really good field. It’s not what we’re looking for, but we’re seeing some stuff we’re looking for. We’re headed in the right direction.”
A&M will host The Aggie Invitational on Monday, April 10 and Tuesday, April 11 at Traditions Club in Bryan. This will be the final tournament for the Aggies before heading to Georgia for the SEC Championship which is slated for April 19-23.