News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The No. 22 Texas A&M Aggies fired a 4-under 276 in Wednesday’s first round of the SEC Men’s Golf Championship to position themselves in fourth place.
Daniel Rodrigues logged a bogey-free round at the par-70, 7,005-yard Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club. He is tied for fourth place at 3-under 67, two strokes off the pace set by tournament leader Camden Smith of Georgia (-5).
The Aggies trail first-place Vanderbilt (-11) by seven strokes. Georgia (-10) and Auburn (-6) are also ahead of Ol’ Sarge’s charges going into the second round. The Maroon & White are seven strokes above the cutoff line to make the eight-team match play bracket with two rounds remaining.
Michael Heidelbaugh birdied two of the last four holes, posting a 1-under 69 for the day. He is tied for 18th place. Phichaksn Maichon and Jaime Montojo are tied for 27th place at even 70. Aaron Pounds rounded out the Aggie fivesome with a 4-over 74.
The Aggies start Thursday’s action with tee times from 8:20-9:00 a.m. at hole No. 10. The Maroon & White are paired Florida and Tennessee for the second round.
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Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Brian Kortan
On the strong start by Daniel Rodrigues…
“Dani did a really good job from hole one to hole 18. He was in control of his round the hole day. It was good to see him put that round together. I know he thinks he left a few out there, but all-in-all he executed really well the entire round and got a good one on the board for us.”
On where the team is positioned after round one…
“I thought we did a really nice job. We could have finished a little better down the stretch to get an even better score, but we’re in a good place going into round two. I’m really happy that Mike (Michael Heidelbaugh) finished well. Aaron (Pounds) got his first competitive round in at an SEC Championship, so I expect that he’ll play better tomorrow. P (Phichaksn Maichon) was a little uncharacteristic today and didn’t finish the round as well as he could have, but he has a lot of rounds here and he’s really comfortable. He’ll shoot a great job tomorrow. The guys battled. That’s kind of their identity. They’ll fight for shots and work their tail off. They did that for 18 holes today.”