Texas A&M men's golf settles for ninth-place finish at Aggie Invitational

Generally, when someone says there’s no place like home, it’s meant as a warm description of the place they cherish.

After this weekend’s Aggie Invitational at Traditions Golf Club, Texas A&M men’s golf will be hoping there truly is no other place like Traditions for the remainder of its schedule.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the course or the facilities; they’re as good as anything in the country. The problem lies in the fact that Texas A&M garnered a ninth-place finish in its home even with a score of 24 over par.

“We finished our round so poorly,” said head coach J.T. Higgins. “That’s just disappointing and is something we’ve emphasized and done really well all spring. It’s sad to see it happen at home, where we don’t finish the round off.”

Starting the day 20 shots behind leader, and eventual champion, Oklahoma State, the Aggies hopes of winning were slim. However, there were goals they could easily accomplish with a solid round on Sunday.

First, finishing with an under par final round would have moved A&M up the leaderboard and given them momentum heading into the postseason. The most disappointing thing?

The fact that they almost did it.

A&M posted six front nine birdies and seven back nine birdies, plenty of firepower to get things headed in the right direction. The problem was that they made too many bogeys and far too may doubles. Three of those doubles came on the final three holes, which took the Aggies from an under par finish and a move up the leaderboard, back to their position in ninth.

That was something that left a bad taste in their coach’s mouth.

“You might have to ask me how I feel (about us heading into the postseason) in a few days. Right now, I don’t feel very good. I can’t believe that we couldn't make any birdies on our home golf course in perfect conditions. The course was there for the taking and we just didn't have it this weekend.”

“On top of that, we just made so many double bogies today. We have been a team that has kept our mistakes to bogey and kept our ball in play off the tee. We felt like today, other than Andrew Lister, everybody was looking for golfballs.”

The most positive takeaway from this weekend came in the form of the one man Higgins referred to: Andrew Lister.

After losing his spot in the lineup before A&M’s last tournament, Lister worked harder on his game and blew away his teammates in the qualifier, regaining his spot.

He made the most of it Saturday and Sunday by finishing tied for fourth in his final Aggie Invitational.

The senior fired a final round 70, which put him at one under for the tournament and ten shots better than any other player in A&M’s starting lineup.

“It was a solid, clean round today,” Lister said of his final round 70. “I  stayed home from the Floridian and it was the first tournament I had missed in a while. I guess it motivated me to work harder. I was already working hard, but it just gave me some extra motivation,”

“I just gained some confidence and started playing well.”

While fellow senior Ben Crancer posted a final round 72 and showed heart in battling through two double bogies, it was Lister that set the best example for what this team can do. Coach Higgins stated that he had been the team’s number five player, but worked to get his game in shape for this week.

As A&M now moves into postseason play at the SEC championships in a few weeks, maybe this performance will motivate the rest of the team to work harder than they already are in hopes of putting a stellar wrap on their season. They’ve got one thing working in their favor.

There’s no place like home.