Begins Tuesday at the Capital City Club near Atlanta. The Ags are first off No. 10 tee tomorrow at 7:20 ET. Follow live scoring here:

http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/static/participants_4097.html

The format of the NCAA Championship is three rounds of medal play (Tues-Thurs) with the top 8 advancing to match play over the weekend.

Texas A&M enters the tournament ranked No. 20 in the country. It's been an up and down year for the Ags, who have fought through injuries and some inconsistency, but seem to be playing their best golf of the year right now. They finished 4th at the talent-loaded SEC tournament and followed it up with a 4th place finish at the Tempe Regional.

A quick rundown of the team:

Cameron Peck Sr - (last tournament ever for the decorated senior, one could argue he hasn't lived up to high expectations this year... but all is forgotten with one big time performance this week, finished third at NCAA's two years ago... highest finish ever for an Ag)

Johannes Veerman Jr - (finished T4 at regionals, returnee from last year's NCAA squad, very talented player)

Ty Dunlap So - (top finisher for A&M at all three postseason tournaments last year, was injured for part of this year, shot 66 in a recent US Open qualifier, top 20 finish at regionals)

Drew Evans Sr - (burst onto the scene this year and led the Ags in scoring avg, won team MVP, finished T7 at the SEC championship)

Greg Yates So - (has played very good golf all year, part of last year's NCAA squad as a freshman, could do very well at NCAA's if he can finish off his rounds)

Here is a good breakdown of the field. It's basically Cal, Bama and everyone else. But as the 2009 Ags showed, anything can happen in match play.

http://golfweek.com/news/2013/may/26/ncaa-mens-golf-odds-ron-balicki/

Also, the SEC was by far the strongest conference in 2013. Sent 9 teams to NCAA Tournament. Next best was 5 (Big 12 and Pac 10).

http://golfweek.com/news/2013/may/26/ncaa-mens-golf-best-conferences/

Thanks for the write up, looking forward to following this.

I like this team, think they have a great shot at making match play. From there anything can happen.

The first round is underway!

Solid start! 3-under early in round one.

Course is playing firm/fast with little rough. Weather looks to be nice as well. Should be great scoring conditions.

Making the turn right now. Even par for the day. Currently in 5th place among the morning 15 teams.

It looks to me like the back nine is more difficult than the front. Holes 14-18 look like a tough stretch... a 220 yard par 3 mixed in with four par 4's, none of which are shorter than 468.

If we can shoot 4-5 under par on the front (our back), I think we'll be in solid shape heading into round two. But all the higher ranked teams play this afternoon, so it would be it'd be nice to get in the clubhouse among the top 3-4 teams in the morning wave.

Ouch. Last hour and a half was not good. Currently +5, in 13 place of morning 15 teams.

YIKES! +5 and sliding rapidly. Currently 13th of the 15 teams on the course.

ASU riding their low man hard at -6, team -4 thru 14

In the clubhouse at 5-over par 285 for round one. Of the teams in the morning wave we are currently T6. I'd imagine we'll be T5 or T4 when it's all said and done. But I'm also guessing that at least 10 teams in the afternoon will beat us today... leaving us in the middle of the pack (15-20 range) heading into tomorrow.

Overall not a very impressive start, but we're not out of it by any means. One interesting note is that we were tied for 13th place after the first round in 2009 when we won the natty. But we also shot the low round of the week in the second round to make up alot of ground.

Here's the 2009 results:
http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/leaderboards/team/static/team1495.html

Some guy from ASU shot 61, salty as hell. We'll see how the afternoon wave does.

Arizona State shot a somewhat flukey 10-under round this morning, aided by a 61 from John Rahm. They're the only thing keeping Alabama from beginning to run away with the tournament. Bama is starting to flex its muscles. I wouldn't be surprised to see them grab the No. 1 seed for match play by 10+ strokes.

Alabama is in beast mode.

http://www.ncaa.com/content/di-mens-golf-leaderboard

-4
-3
-2
-1
+2 (poor Trey, they may castrate him)

We finish the day tied for 12th, but we (+5) are 6 strokes behind the last qualifying team (-1). That's a lot. I know, there can be really big swings in one round. But in watching the scores over the last couple of years, that's a big deficit to start with. Add to that that there are about 10 teams within four strokes just behind us, and we've certainly put ourselves in a hole.

Using this day's scores as a gauge, unless we can shoot at par, or preferably under, we are in a real problem as far as qualifying for match play (best 8 teams).

On the other hand, perhaps that isn't a realistic goal. We were seeded 21st, and there are 15 teams seeded ahead of us, and a number more right behind us. We finished 4th in our regional - there were 6 each qualifying 5 teams. By that yardstick we should finish 24th or so.

Let's hope the team shows up tomorrow that shot the 2nd best round, by a lot, in the final round of the regional! Gig 'em.

Colorado - good stuff, but you know there are two more stroke play rounds, right?

Bama and Cal are on the course. A&M tees off at 12:40 ET this afternoon. Follow here:

http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/static/team_leaderboard_4097.html

I'm not quite ready to forecast the cutline, but I do think if we shoot E today, we will move up a couple spots on the leaderboard and have a chance tomorrow. But obviously an 8-under round (like we shot in R2 in 2009) would put us in very good position!

If yall don't mind me asking, what is the format for today and tomorrow?

Damn, Bama and Cal came out of the gates on fire!

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Put some whiskey in your water, sugar in your tea.

Yea... Bama and Cal are in a class by themselves this year.

Format for today and tomorrow is stroke play. Match play begins Friday.

Cal and TCU -9 on the day
Arky -8
Bama must have hit a rough patch because they are now at -3 for the day.

Is there not video out there in the early rounds? I'd love to see what this course looks like in the morning that is allowing guys to go -4 on the front nine.

CapCityAg - yes, I do know there are two more rounds to play to qualify for the top 8. But my feeling is that its difficult to move up a lot in a single day. Besides the course seems very playable, at least for these players, so we are going to have to shoot low rounds to move up.

Right now, TCU is -10 on the front nine, and everyone of their players is under par. However, they haven't even moved into the top 10. I believe there is only one team over par right now. Again, it's relatively early and teams often slide a bit as the round goes on, but it looks like we are really going to have to come out on first to give ourselves a chance.

We need to come out with our proverbial



or else be left in the dust.

[This message has been edited by FincAg (edited 5/29/2013 9:42a).]

Cal currently -15 on the day.

I've heard the course is not setup too difficult. Not much rough, playing firm and fast.

Looks like we'll definitely have to go a few under this afternoon to have a chance tomorrow. Hopefully the wind will stay down.

Need to go low. Even Par ain't gettin' it done today.

It looks like 8th place will be around Even, after the morning rounds are finished. So, it would be great if we could shoot a few under today and finish around Even. Also, we need to make up ground on OU and OSU.

#3 UCLA has pretty much all but assured it isn't going to make match play.

Evans with an Eagle

And we're off. Evans -2 (4), Veerman -1 (3), Dunlap E (1), and Peck and Yates are +1 thru 1 & 2 holes.

well apparently it was a scoring error on the site so no eagle.

Weird

Anyone happen to know if Evans' eagle might have been a penalty, or just the website error?

Probably website error. It's not updating regularly and often deletes entire front/back 9s when making the turn. I have seen quite a few glitches these two days.