The Battalion
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Page 5
Friday • April 25, 1997
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Tim Moog, The Battalion
&M peeking in time
f or conference tourney
Chris Ferrell
I The Texas A&M Men’s Golf Team is
heating up at just the right time. With
the Big 12 Tournament set to kick off
:Monday, A&M is playing it’s best golf
of the year. The Aggies have finished in
pe money at their past three events,
ping for third at the Louisiana Clas
sics, winning the Border Olympics and
inishing second at the All-American
itercollegiate.
1 The rest of the country has taken
notice of what Head Coach Bob Ellis
[nd his boys are doing. Last week the
iggies entered the Golfweek/Taylor
fode rankings for the first time this
:ason at No. 27.
The past three tournaments have
ieen a vast improvement over the fall
:ason, which saw the Aggies finish no
ligher than eighth in any competition.
Winner by committee
A key to A&M’s success has been the
lability of different players to step up. All
five Aggie golfers have led the team in
Icoring as least once this season,
fophomore Ryan Palmer paced the Ag-
Jie golf team in the spring’s first event
fin Monterrey, Mexico, finishing fifth
Ikerall with a one-under-par 215.
At the University ofTexas-El Paso In
tercollegiate, junior Miguel del Angel
lied the charge with a two-round total of
147. Freshman Lee Reed took his turn
litop the leader board with a sixth-place
finish at the Louisiana Classics in
March. Sophomore Ty Cox made his
best showing of the season at the All-
American Intercollegiate, finishing sec
ond. Jeff Brown, the team’s lone senior,
has led the Aggies in scoring twice this
season, first at the Taylor Made Big Is
land Intercollegiate and then placing
first at the Border Olympics.
Ellis said he would not be surprised
to see any of the five battling for the Big
12 title.
Home course advantage
As the Aggies head to the Prairie
Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson,
Kan., they will find themselves at a bit
of a disadvantage. The course played
host to the final seven Big 8 champi
onship tournaments, a factor which will
give the former Big 8 schools an edge.
Ellis said the course is different from
many in this area.
“1 played the course once in college
and 1 think they had six trees on the
course,” Ellis said. “I think they h^ye
eight trees now. It’s an old Perry
Maxwell course, and Perry Maxwell is
just a great golf architect. His golf cours
es are awesome. I’m looking forward to
playing it.”
The fast greens are going to make
putting a priority.
The forecast calls for...
Weather will once again be a factor
for A&M. April in Kansas is traditionally
a windy time of year and next week
should not be any different. However, it
is nothing the Aggies have not seen be
fore. If A&M has learned anything this
year, its how to handle the climate. The
team has had to battle Mother Nature all
season. Over the season, the A&M has
played in wind, cold, and rain. The pre
vious conditions may prove to be good
practice for the Big 12 Tournament.
Aggies look to stay hot at Big 12
By Chris Ferrell
The Battalion
To say the Big 12 Championship is com
ing along at the right time for the 27th-
ranked Texas A&M Men’s Golf Team is a
major understatement.
After a sluggish start, the Aggies have
caught fire and finished in the top three in
their past three tournaments.
A&M is coming off a second place finish
at the All-American Intercollegiate in their
last outing. Head Coach Bob Ellis said his
team’s performance at the All-American
was encouraging.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get everyone
going well,” Ellis said. “I was glad to see
[sophomore] Ty [Cox] put together a good
tournament at the All-American. He’s start
ing to play more the way he’s capable of
playing. [Senior Jeff] Browny’s (Brown)
played consistently. He didn’t start out well,
but he finished strong the last 27 holes. [Ju
nior] Miguel [del Angel] started off slow and
then came back well.
“Everybody seems to be playing well. The
last three tournaments you can see some
marked improvement and that’s what your
looking for.”
After the event, the team checked into the
national rankings for the first time this season.
Ellis said while the rankings are nice, the
team is not paying too much attention to them.
“The most important ranking comes at
the end of the season,” Ellis said. “What
those show is that you’ve been doing well
and your moving up in the polls. What they
show is we’re going in the right direction.”
The Aggies will look to continue their cur
rent run against a solid field of opponents.
While the current crop of teams does not
contain as many golf powerhouses as the
former Southwest Conference, Ellis said
there are some very strong teams in the field.
Beside 2nd-ranked Oklahoma State Uni
versity and the llth-ranked University of
Texas Longhorns, A&M is the only other na
tionally ranked team in conference.
Ellis said OSU is the team to beat.
“They are a very highly ranked school and
going to provide the toughest competition,”
Ellis said. “They’re going to be well-prepared,
especially with this being the first year of the
new Big 12.”
Texas has been inconsistent at times this
season, but Ellis said they could also be in
the hunt.
“Texas has a good team and they’re up
and down,” he said. “When they’re on, they
are very good. And when they’re not playing
well, they’re not really good.”
A&M has fared well versus Big 12 competi
tion this season. The Aggies have faced confer
ence teams in nine of their 10 tournaments, ac
cumulating a 422-stroke advantage against
their Big 12 opponents during the span.
The only conference foes the Aggies
have not seen this season are Iowa State,
Kansas and Nebraska.
The tournament will be held at the Prairie
Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. El
lis said the course will call for A&M will have
to play its best golf of the year.
“You need to be a good putter,” Ellis said.
“The greens are very undulating, they’re very
fast. You need to be able to play well under
windy conditions. Kansas is usually pretty
windy. Most of the time in the spring, it’s go
ing to be windy. Conditions are going to be a
very big factor. The weather conditions and
the course can really run a player down.”
I ULWt I i iun
Kirchner brings spark to Lady Ags
Sports Information
Junior Aurora Kirchner prepares
to shoot for the green.
By Lara L. Zuehlke
The Battalion
Junior Aurora Kirchner, a member of the Texas
A&M Women’s Golf Team, was destined to play
golf. Growing up in a family full of golfers, it was
inevitable she would play the game.
Kirchner began playing as a nine-year-old un
der the watchful eye of her father, who played golf
at the University of Illinois.
The Klein High School graduate said her parents
convinced her and her sisters to start playing golf.
“They definitely had a big influence,” Kirchn
er said. “My parents did push us, but I was always
real motivated to do it. I know it was harder for my
sisters, because they would get angry sometimes
when they didn’t want to practice.”
Kirchner said she has always been willing to
practice and improve.
“I loved it from the start, so it was never really
hard for me to go out to the golf course (to prac
tice) in whatever weather,” Kirchner said. “I knew
I wanted to get better.”
Kirchner’s countless hours on the golf course
have paid off. She is fourth on the Lady Aggie
team, with a 81.33 average and tied for 16th at the
Big 12 Championship.
A&M Head Coach Jeanne Sutherland said she
has seen Kirchner’s game improve since she first
came to A&M.
“Aurora’s learned a lot over the past three
years,” Sutherland said. “Her game has improved
a lot since she came in. I’d say the areas she’s im
proved on the most are her short game and her
course management.”
Sutherland said Kirchner brings an upbeat at
mosphere to the A&M team.
See Kirchner, Page 7
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