DALLAS – Sophomore Ben Crancer claimed his third top-ten finish of the season as the No. 3 Texas A&M men’s golf team completed its fall schedule Tuesday with an eighth-place showing at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate in Dallas.
The Aggies (359-350-351=1060, -5) shot under par for the second straight round, completing their final run through the Royal Oaks Country Club at four-under, while tournament champion Oklahoma State (340-349-340=1029, -35) recorded an impressive 15-under-par team round to clinch the team title.
“We played a lot better today but not well enough to overcome the poor start yesterday,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “Ben had another great showing and everyone played hard – it was just a little too much ground to make up.”
Stanford came in 16 shots behind Oklahoma State to finish second, followed on the leaderboard by Baylor (-17), New Mexico (-16), SMU (-14), Oklahoma (-7) and Iowa (-7). Trailing the Aggies were Ohio State (+8), UT Arlington (+16), GRU Augusta (+27) and Sam Houston State (+64).
Crancer (72-67-68=207, -6) recorded four birdies with only one bogey in the third round to finish three-under-par for the day and tie for 10th in the tournament. Fueled by his first collegiate individual win which came during a 16-under par performance at the Dick’s Challenge Cup in late September, the Kirkwood, Mo., native finished the semester with a team-leading 69.85 scoring average.
Senior Jade Scott (72-69-71=212) and sophomore Andrew Lister (72-72-69=213) finished with scores of one-under par and even par, respectively, while junior Ty Dunlap (71-75-69=215, +2), junior Greg Yates (72-71-74=217, +4) and senior Johannes Veerman (75-71-75=221, +8) rounded out the A&M contingency.
“I thought we had a good fall season,” Higgins added. “We competed really well at a high level and played some different lineups with a lot of players getting some good experience. We have a lot of areas to work on and improve in the off season but we have a chance to be really good this year.”
Following their winter break the Aggies will return to the links in the spring when they compete at the SeaBest Invitational in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 3-4.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics