The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Conference Championship
Men's Golf finishes second at Big 12 Championship
04.29.2012 | Men's Golf
April 29, 2012
TRINITY, Texas -- The No. 1 Texas Men's Golf team overcame a nine-stroke deficit midway through the final round of the 72-hole Big 12 Championship at Whispering Pines Golf Club, but it wasn't enough to fight off eventual champion Texas A&M down the stretch. The Longhorns (302-292-283-291=1168, +16) carded a 3-over-par 291 in Sunday's finale to finish three strokes behind the Aggies (296-286-286-297=1165).
The Longhorns rallied on the back nine where counting scores by senior Alex Moon, junior Julio Vegas, sophomore Toni Hakula and freshman Jordan Spieth totaled 1-under to the Aggies' 9-over. Earlier at the turn, Texas was 4-over while A&M came in at even.
Senior Dylan Frittelli held a three-stroke individual lead at 5-under through 15 holes, but a double bogey on 16 and a triple bogey on 18 cost him his deficit. Frittelli (69-76-67-76) finished tied for third place at even-par 288.
Spieth (74-69-75-71=289, +1) notched his second subpar round of his first conference championship appearance with a 1-under 71. Spieth finished one shot behind Frittelli in fifth place.
With his eighth-place finish at 5-over 293, Vegas (78-71-69-75) collected his sixth top-10 of the season. Moon (81-76-72-72=301, +13) and Hakula (81-76-77-73=307, +19) finished tied for 20th and 33rd places, respectively.
Frittelli, Spieth and Vegas earned All-Big 12 Team honors by finishing among the top-10 individuals in the 50-player field.
Next up, Texas will compete in one of six NCAA Regional Championship events from May 17-19 at a site to be announced Monday, May 7 at 8 p.m. Central on NCAA.com.
POST-TOURNAMENT COMMENTS
Texas Head Coach John Fields
On Texas' second-place finish at the Big 12 Championship: The character of this Texas team showed, for sure. They came back each of the last three days. We have a lot to build on from that. This is going to sting for a while, maybe a year, but we'll come back. Three shots short stings really bad.
On overcoming the nine-stroke deficit: We got off to such a bad start on the first day and we had to fight back. I'm proud of our guys for fighting back the way they did. We're a lot better team than we showed this week. We played so poorly the first round that we dug ourselves a deep hole.
On Dylan Frittelli's last three holes: Dylan is a very fine player, so the last few holes were unusual for him. There was enough disaster with water and penalty strokes that he ended up with a triple coming in. You don't focus on that as a player. This is a 72-hole golf tournament, and there have been times when he made birdies coming in. This is just the way it shook down this time.
Freshman Jordan Spieth
On his first Big 12 Championship: We were all real excited to come here, but we didn't play well. We didn't play to our capability. We knew we were the favorites, everyone else knew we were the favorites, and we didn't let that get to us. We dug ourselves a hole at beginning and had to dig ourselves out the rest of the weekend.
Senior Dylan Frittelli
On his emotions after the last three holes: I'm not going to reflect on it too much. I'm going to try and forget about it and move on.
On Coach Fields' post-tournament comments to the team: He told us to pick our heads up. We played a great tournament and did a lot of things well this week. We came from quite a few shots down to take the lead today, and we did a lot of great things out there.
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1. Texas A&M -296-286-286-297=1165 (+13)
2. TEXAS - 302-292-283-291=1168 (+16)
3. Texas Tech - 290-298-290-305=1183 (+31)
4. Oklahoma - 292-292-296-305=1185 (+33)
5. Baylor - 304-297-290-296=1187 (+35)
6. Oklahoma State - 310-302-287-297=1196 (+44)
7. Iowa State - 307-299-299-299=1204 (+52)
8. Missouri - 312-301-300-296=1209 (+57)
9. Kansas State - 307-304-307-309=1227 (+75)
10. Kansas - 307-320-304-315=1246 (+94)
FINAL TOP-10 INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
1. Joakim Mikkelson, Baylor - 74-71-72-68=285 (-3)
2. Tyler Dunlap, Texas A&M - 73-71-69-74=287 (-1)
T3. Abraham Ancer, Oklahoma - 72-69-69-78=288 (E)
T3. Dylan Frittelli, TEXAS - 69-76-67-76=288 (E)
5. Jordan Spieth, TEXAS - 74-69-75-71=289 (+1)
6. Johannes Veerman, Texas A&M - 72-70-73-75=290 (+2)
7. Clement Sordet, Texas Tech - 73-72-70-76=291 (+3)
8. Julio Vegas, TEXAS - 78-71-69-75=293 (+5)
9. Jordan Russell, Texas A&M - 73-73-71-77=294 (+6)
10. Matias Dominguez, Texas Tech - 69-74-74-78=295 (+7)
ADDITIONAL TEXAS PLAYERS
T20. Alex Moon - 81-76-72-72=301 (+13)
T33. Toni Hakula - 81-76-77-73=307 (+19)
