The Texas A&M men’s golf team placed No. 11 in the field of 15 at this weekend’s Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields Country Club. The Aggies finished the third and final round Sunday with a cumulative team score of 900, 39 strokes behind first-place Illinois.
The top performer for the Aggies was junior Adria Arnaus, who finished plus-9 and tied for No. 15 overall. Junior Andrew Lister and freshman Andrew Paysse shot 14- and 17-over par, respectively, while Ben Crancer rebounded after an opening round of 87 to record second and third day rounds of 75 and 77. Freshman Cameron Champ withdrew from competition on day two after experiencing back stiffness.
The team dug itself into a hole to open the tournament Friday, falling 14 strokes behind the leader in wet and rainy conditions. The course conditions proved a hurdle to the entire field on day one, as only two players, Trevor Cone of Virginia Tech (-2) and Wyndham Clark of Oklahoma State (-1), managed to finish at or below par.
Saturday was drier and kinder to the Aggies despite prevailing cold and windy conditions. The men experienced a 14-stroke improvement and managed to climb as high as No. 8 on the team leaderboard. Arnaus led the charge with a round of 71, a tournament low among Aggies, and finished day two tied for No. 7 among all players. A&M’s total team score of 290 was its best single round score by 14 strokes.
However, the Aggies followed up their best round of the tournament with their worst, shooting a collective 306 as a team. Paysse, Lister and Crancer wrapped up the weekend with rounds of seven-over par, while Arnaus capped his tournament with a round of 75.
The Aggie men’s next action will be Friday in the SEC/ACC Challenge in Nashville, Tenn.