Texas A&M wins the John Burns Intercollegiate in Hawaii

22 Feb 2020
see also: View results for John Burns Intercollegiate, The Ocean Course at Hokuala
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- Texas A&M photo

The No. 10 Texas A&M men's golf team won its second straight tournament of the spring season with a five-stroke team victory at the 44th annual John A. Burns Intercollegiate which concluded on Saturday at the Wailua Golf Course.

The Aggies built on the spring season-opening win at the Sea Best Invitational by outclassing the field at the Burns Intercollegiate. Texas A&M fired a final round, 12-under par 276 and finished the three-day tournament at 19-under as a team and well ahead of a Burns Intercollegiate field that featured seven teams in the Golfstat.com team rankings.

"I couldn't be any more proud of these guys. They really came ready to play today," Aggie head coach J.T. HIggens said. "We started off with a couple of birdies and we just kept increasing the lead throughout the day. We played rock-solid golf up and down the lineup. They earned it; they fought really hard. It was a great job by them."

All five Aggies were at par or better on Saturday with junior Walker Lee leading the way with a 4-under par 68. Lee finished eagle-birdie to put the finishing touch on the Aggies' strong victory. Sophomore Sam Bennett and freshman Jimmy Lee closed with 3-under par rounds of 69, while senior Dan Erickson posted a 2-under 70 and freshman William Paysse contributed an even-par 72.

"It was such a great team effort," Higgins added. "We had seven guys finish in the top 30 (including individuals), which is a great sign, and the young guys like Sam, Willie and Jimmy just keep getting better. All three of them were in the top 15. And Dan and Walker played really well too.

"That's two-for-two (team victories) this spring and I can't think of a better way to get things started."

In the final player standings, all five scoring Aggies placed among the top 25, including Bennett and Jimmy Lee who were both in the top 10. Bennett, who flirted with the lead all day, tied for third at 6-under, while Jimmy Lee tied for seventh at 4-under. Rounding out the scorers were Paysse at 2-under (t15th) and Walker Lee and Erickson at 1-under (t22nd).

The individual winner was New Mexico's Sam Choi at 10-under 206.

Among the non-scoring individual Aggies, senior Brandon Smith tied for 15th (-2), senior Josh Gliege tied for 30th (+1) and junior Reese Ramsey tied for 47th (+4).

Trailing the Aggies were New Mexico (-14), BYU (-8), Illinois (-7), UNLV (+1), UNCW (+1), St. Mary's (+2), California (+2), Arizona (+2), Virginia (+3), North Carolina (+5), Long Beach State (+11), CSU Fullerton (+14), Santa Clara (+15), Grand Canyon (+16), UTEP (+21), UC Irvine (+23), Utah (+25), Washington State (+29), Hawaii (+31) and Northern Colorado (+35).

Thanks to Texas A&M Men's Golf for this report.

Results: John Burns Intercollegiate