LIHU’E, Hawaii – Aaron Pounds fired a 3-under 67 in Thursday’s first round action at the 49th annual John A. Burns Intercollegiate to lead the Texas A&M men’s golf team to second place on the leaderboard.
 

The Aggies carded a 3-under 277 on the par-70, 7,156-yard Ocean Course at to Hokuala. The Maroon & White are one stroke behind tournament leader Loyola Marymount (-4). Long Beach State (-2) was the only other team to clear par.
 
Pounds is also tied for second individually. He tallied six birdies on his circuit, including three in a row on Nos. 10-12. Pounds is one stroke behind Utah’s Sergio Jimenez (-4).
 
Two Aggies are among eight golfers tied for sixth place at 2-under 68. Wheaton Ennis logged four birdies on Thursday’s loop. Kris Kuvaas, who was playing as an individual, fired an eagle on the par-5, 525-yard No.2  and added three birdies.
 
Alex Long and Jaime Montojo checked in at 1-over, 71 to place themselves in 32nd place heading into the second of three rounds.
 
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach Brian Kortan
On the strong showing the second half of the round…
“The challenge today was the wind. It wasn’t anything else. There’s some stretches of the course where the wind direction played harder than others. In general, the guys finally made some birdies and had a couple putts go in the hole. On the front nine, we didn’t really get off to a great start. There’s a pretty gettable par-5 that we didn’t handle very well, but they hung in there and finally made a few putts in the middle of the round.
 
On Aaron Pounds solid play this spring…
“He’s just playing a lot of clean, fundamentally sound golf. He’s taking care of his scoring shots very well and controlling his ball. It’s the golf we want from all the guys, but for him to do it on a consistent level like he’s been doing is great to see. That’s what you want from your guys at the top of the lineup.”
 
 
TEAM STANDINGS




1
Loyola Marymount
-4
276


2
Texas A&M
-3
277


3
Long Beach State
-2
278


t-4
Brigham Young
+1
281


t-4
New Mexico
+1
281


t-4
UNLV
+1
281


t-4
UTEP
+1
281


t-8
San Diego State
+2
282


t-8
Santa Clara
+2
282


t-10
California
+3
283


t-10
Utah
+3
283


12
Hawaii
+4
284


13
St. Mary’s (Calif.)
+6
286


14
Washington State
+9
289


15
Missouri
+10
290


t-16
Grand Canyon
+11
291


t-16
Miami (Ohio)
+11
291


18
Fresno State
+16
296


19
San Francisco
+20
300

 
TEXAS A&M SCORES