ALPHARETTA, Ga. – The No. 10 Texas A&M men’s golf team saw a 14-stroke improvement from its opening round at the PING-Golfweek Preview on Monday, finishing the tournament’s second round in eighth place.
“Today wasn’t a whole lot different than yesterday but we finished the round off,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “I felt like we fought a little bit harder coming in and stayed with it. I think that we’re playing solid golf and we’ve still got a chance but we need another great round tomorrow and probably some help from some of the teams in front of us.”
UCLA (282-284=566) leads the field at the 15-team tournament by a stroke over UNLV (281-286=567), which is followed by Georgia Tech and California in third place tie. Rounding out the top eight teams at the event are Washington and New Mexico in a fifth-place tie and Texas (290-283=573), which sits in seventh place and just a shot up on the Aggies (294-280=574).
Senior All-American Cameron Peck (72-67=139) fired his first bogie-free round of the year while picking up birdies on Nos. 7, 8, and 11 to ascend into a tie for third place individually. Peck trails overall leader Tom Berry (67-69=136) of San Diego State by just three shots and the duo will be paired together in Tuesday’s final round, teeing off on the Crabapple Course at 8:40 a.m.
“Cam played bogie-free, three-under par today, but I think even he feels like it could have been lower,” Higgins added. “He’s still not hitting the ball quite as well as he did last year but it’s great to see his ball-striking is coming around. If he can get a few more putts to drop, he’s got a chance to win. He’s playing fantastic.”
Sophomore Ty Dunlap (75-68=143) also saw a noticeable improvement on Monday by carding a 68 to end play in a tie for 20th. The Westlake, Texas, native posted an eagle on the par-5 fourth hole while also notching birdies on No. 12 and No.18 to show a seven-shot improvement from Sunday’s opening round.
“Ty played really well today and the other guys battled out there,” Higgins added. "It was just a lot better effort so that was good to see. We need another good round tomorrow and we’ll see where we end up.”
Texas A&M junior Johannes Veerman (73-72=145) owns a share of 40th place individually after 36 holes, while freshman Ben Crancer (74-73=147) sits in a tie for 46th. Rounding out the A&M contingency, sophomore Greg Yates (75-75=150) carded his second straight round of 75 on Monday.
The event resumes on Tuesday with the tournament’s third and final round where the Aggies are set to tee off in the first group, which also features San Diego State and Texas.
Live stats are available on GolfStat.com and fans can follow live updates on Twitter’s @AggieMensGolf.
