Texas A&M
Satisfying dividends
Aggie golfer Briggs’ efforts result in improvement, success
Battalion Sports
June 8, 1982 Page 11
by Frank L. Christlieb
Sports Editor
About two months before the
end of the 1982 college golf sea
son, junior Danny Briggs found
himself in a dilemma.
Even though he’d spent the
fall and spring seasons working
to improve it, Briggs’ golf game
just hadn’t reached the stan
dards he hoped would result
from his extra effort.
But then Briggs turned to
Texas A&M golf coach Bob
Ellis, in his seventh year with the
Aggies, to attempt to discover an
explanation for his ailing stroke.
“I told Coach Ellis, ‘This is the
hardest I’ve ever worked, and
nothing’s happening,”’ Briggs
said Monday in an telephone in
terview from Longview, where
he’s competing in a pro-am tour
nament at the Oak Forest Coun
try Club. “He told me to be pa
tient, so I did and it worked.”
It worked. Yes, it worked well
enough to catapult the 5-10,
165-pound Briggs and the
Aggies to a Southwest Confer
ence championship and a
fourth-place finish in the NCAA
national tournament in. Pine-
hurst, N.C., May 26-29.
And Briggs, nicknamed by
friends and teammates as Mr.
PR for his golf-induced public
relations skills, said he takes
pride in personal and team
accomplishments.
“I’m really proud for all the
guys on the team for what we did
this season, and for myself, too,”
he said. “I felt Texas A&M was
well represented.
“I also feel it’s a great begin
ning for (athletic director and
head football coach) Jackie
Sherrill, and I’m happy to see
that. And of course, I’m happy
for Coach Ellis — he’s done a
great job for us.”
All in all, Briggs said, his de
termination and effort during
the 1981-82 season paid satis
fying dividends. As for the team,
which didn’t win a single tourna
ment until copping the SWC tro
phy in April, Briggs said there’s
a simple explanation for the
sudden final surge.
“When you’re playing in a
tournament, you usually have
five members on each team, but
you only count the top four
scores,” he said. “But in nearly
every tournament, we had two
guys play well and then two or
three that didn’t play well. We
just couldn’t get everyone play
ing well in the same tournament.
“We had three guys that were
averaging 72 a round, and our
fourth man was averaging 73.
We should have won some tour
naments with three guys averag
ing 72.”
But pre-conference medioc
rity didn’t faze Briggs or his
teammates at all, he said.
“We were all very confident,”
he said, “even after not winning
any tournaments. We knew that
it all had to come together some
time. We went into the confer
ence tournament mentally pre
pared and ready. It was really
the power of positive thinking.
“People didn’t expect us to do
well at nationals, but we knew
we’d have a chance to do real
well.”
At the NCAA competition,
the Aggies rebounded from
eighth place after shooting a 290
the first day to second place af
ter two rounds, finding them
selves at the heels of the Hous
ton Cougars. After having defe
ated the Cougars for the SWC
crown, Briggs said, the Aggies
believed that a two-shot deficit
could be overcome with ease.
It was Briggs’ low of 65 in that
second round that brought
Texas A&M within two strokes
of UH. With that performance,
duplicated by the Cougars’ Billy
Ray Brown the following day,
Briggs tied previous NCAA low
rounds shot by PGA touring
pros Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw,
Curtis Strange and Hale Irwin.
Even after having endured
assorted rain delays totaling ab
out two hours during that
second round, Briggs said he
didn’t have much trouble get
ting excited about tying the re
cord.
“It’s hard to describe the feel
ing I had after shooting that 65,”
he said. “After playing 7 Va hours
out there, I was pretty tired. I
didn’t even know I’d tied a re
cord until I went in there soak
ing wet and a girl asked me if I
knew that I’d tied a record.
“I seem to get a lot of confi
dence and I concentrate a lot
more when it’s raining. I must
have gotten called off the course
about three times during the
round.”
Although the Aggies didn’t
hold onto second place, falling
to fourth, Brigg said the team
may have learned a lesson from
the 1981 NCAA tournament at
Stanford. That year, when the
Aggies finished 10th in the
country, they let second place
slip away after the second round
of the tourney.
“We felt surprised, as if
maybe we weren’t supposed to
be there,” Briggs said. “But this
year, when we were in second
place, we knew that we had a
chance to win it. We didn’t win it,
but we were excited about
finishing fourth. When you
think about finishing fourth
among all the schools in the na
tion, that’s a big accomplish
ment.
“It was a good feeling, and we
really felt we could have won it.
But golf is an individual sport,
and it’s also a day-by-day game.
You can have it one day and
then lose it the next day.”
Texas A&M shot 282-291-
298 during the final three
rounds to finish fourth, 20 shots
behind the Cougars, 10 behind
See BRIGGS page 13
“ntsui
studeit
nen wti
“rial jofcl
‘J^lggic all-America golfer Danny Briggs led his team
jth typa P rst pl ace * n the Southwest Conference and fourth
lice in the NCAA tournament May 26-29 in North
difficiii tarolina. Briggs, who has completed his third year
he cotp eligibility, says he will probably compete for the
desatetiggj es j ur i n g the 1982-83 season rather than opt for
shot at the Professional Golfers’ Association tour.
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