Lee & Phillips Win Aggie Invite; Men’s Golf Ties for Third

BRYAN, Texas – Texas A&M junior All-American Chandler Phillips surged up the leaderboard on the final day of the 2018 Aggie Invitational to claim his fifth career tournament win, an honor he shared with A&M rookie Walker Lee, who placed at the top of the standings for the first time during his collegiate career.

As a team, Texas A&M (302-293-287=882, +18) was one-under during Sunday’s final round to finish with a share of third place on the 14-team leaderboard. Top-ranked Oklahoma State (+5) won the event while Kent State (+12), A&M (+18), LSU (+18) and Alabama (+19) rounded out the top five schools in the team standings.

Phillips (73-71-67=211, -5) turned in a final scorecard of 67 that featured six birdie and just one blemish, a bogie on the par-three No. 16, to move alongside Lee (68-70-73=211, -5), who fired a final round 73 after back-to-back scores under par on Saturday.

“I’m really excited for Walker,” Texas A&M head coach J.T. Higgins said. “A freshman who gets his first college win, that’s great. For Chandler this is kind of becoming old hat and before it’s all said and done he might go down as the best golfer to ever come through here. I’m really excited for him, he played great. I knew he [Phillips] was going to put a good number on the board today because he was looking up there and seeing if he could catch Walker. 67 was a great round, but I’m just so proud for both of those guys.”

Sophomore Brandon Smith (75-70-74=219, +3) notched his fourth career top-10 showing with a share of ninth while senior Andrew Paysse (72-76-77=225, +9) rounded out the A&M lineup in 28th.

In addition to Lee and the players in the A&M lineup, Texas A&M featured three golfers who competed in the event as individuals — Reese Ramsey (77-77-71=225, +9 – T-28th), Kavan Eubank (79-72-80=231, +15 – T-45th) and Max Miller (80-85-76=241, +25, – T-68th).

This season the Aggie Invitational has the added benefit of preparing Texas A&M for post-season play as Traditions Club will play host to an NCAA Regional on May 14-16.

“I think we take this place for granted [Traditions Club], because we get to play it every day and maybe get a little overconfident,” Higgins added. “In tournament conditions you’ve got to play a little smarter and maybe be more conservative with your lines and how you attack the holes. It can bite you and make you start pressing. If you do that on this golf course, bad things are going to happen. I’m glad we played it because we’ve got regionals here in a month. Hopefully, we learned our lesson.”

Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics

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