Aggies in seventh place after day one at Valspar Collegiate Invitational

PALM CITY, Florida -- The No. 14 Texas A&M men’s golf finished the opening day of the talent-laden Valspar Collegiate Invitational in seventh place after Monday’s two rounds.

The Maroon & White carded two rounds of 282 to stand at 4-under, 564 at the par-71, 6,943-yard Floridian National Golf Club. The Aggies are 14 strokes behind the leader Texas Tech (18-under, 550). North Carolina (15-under), Florida State (10-under), Arizona State (9-under), Ohio State (5-under) and Texas (5-under) round out the top six.

Daniel Rodrigues led the Aggies on the opening day, tied four 15th at 3-under, 139. Sam Bennett is one stroke back at 2-under, 140, tied for 20th. William Paysse registered rounds of 73 and 70 and sits in 31st place at 1-over, 143. Jaime Montojo and Vishnu Sadagopan completed the fivesome with two-round tallies of 147. Michael Heidelbaugh, playing as an individual, checked in with a score of 148 with one round remaining.

The Aggies sat in eighth place after the first round, posting a 2-under, 282. Rodrigues paced the Maroon & White with a 2-under, 69, posting four birdies. Bennett and Montojo were both 1-under, 70, with Bennett logging two eagles.

Action wraps up with Tuesday’s final round. A shotgun start is slated for 7:30 a.m. with the Aggies paired with Texas, Ohio State and Houston.

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TEXAS A&M SCORES

t-15

Daniel Rodrigues

69-70=139 (-3)

t-20

Sam Bennett

70-70=140 (-2)

t-31

William Paysse

73-70=143 (+1)

t-56

Jaime Montojo

70-77=147 (+5)

t-56

Vishnu Sadagopan

75-72=147 (+5)

t-67

Michael Heidelbaugh (i)

76-72=148 (+6)

TEAM SCORES

#3 Texas Tech

277-273=550 (-18)

#4 North Carolina

275-278=553 (-15)

#7 Florida State

272-286=558 (-10)

#2 Arizona State

278-281=559 (-9)

t-5

#10 Texas

280-283=563 (-5)

t-5

Ohio State

281-282=563 (-5)

#14 Texas A&M

282-282=564 (-4)

Houston

286-282=568 (E)

#18 Georgia Southern

284-285=569 (+1)

Northwestern

288-283=571 (+3)

t-11

Duke

279-293=572 (+4)

t-11

Wake Forest

286-286=572 (+4)

t-11

#9 Pepperdine

284-288=572 (+4)

Marquette

285-292=577 (+9)

Minnesota

291-293=584 (+16)

Lamar

294-300=594 (+27)

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head coach Brian Kortan

On Monday’s two rounds...

“It was a long day on a challenging golf course. 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. We’ll have a chance to have a great day tomorrow and have a strong finish to this tournament.”

On individual performances...

“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. 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.”