By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Staff Writer

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As far as the Texas A&M men's golf team is concerned, the fall season never existed.

"We took the actual results and every guy in the room tore up a piece and we threw them in the garbage, and said, 'That's over, it didn't happen,'" A&M coach J.T. Higgins said. "The only other thing I'll say about the fall is the tournaments were so close back-to-back that we got on a losing streak and we went into a slump, and there just was no way time to stop it. That truck was running downhill."

A&M opened the season ranked 11th nationally and got out of the gate with a solid fourth-place finish at The Inverness Intercollegiate in Toledo, Ohio. But by the fourth tournament, the Aggies would have given anything for a mulligan on their fall campaign.

Over the final two fall tournaments, a last-place finish and a ninth in an 11-team event dropped the Aggies out of the Top 25 for the first time since the spring of 2005.

The Aggies are undaunted, though, after taking a collective breath and returning from Christmas break with a renewed confidence and attitude.

"All we've been talking about is what we are going to do from here," Higgins said. "We still have a chance to reach every goal we set at the begining of the year. We still think we're the best team in the Big 12. We still think we've got a great chance to win the Big 12 championship, and we still think we have a chance to win a national championship."

One reason Higgins is so optimistic is junior Bronson Burgoon, a third-team All-American who led the team with a 72.13 scoring average last season, is back after being academically ineligible.

"That was my Christmas present," Higgins said. "He had a great semester and is taking school seriously and doing a great job with it."

Having Burgoon in the lineup should take some pressure off the others, whom Higgins says were trying to shoot 68s every time out to make up for Burgoon's absence.

"It's college golf, and even par is a pretty good score, so we learned a lot about that, too," Higgins said. "Just do your job. Do what you can do."

Higgins has more reason to believe the Aggies will turn it around than just a gut feeling.

Picked by the coaches to win the Big 12, A&M has three all-conference players in Burgoon and seniors Robert Gates Jr. and Martin Piller. Gates finished fourth at the Big 12 Championships and had a 73.11 scoring average last season. He also had three other Top-10 finishes. Piller, meanwhile, placed sixth at the Big 12 tournament and finished last season with a 73.5 stroke average. Piller also has four Top-5 finishes as an Aggie.

So Higgins knows the Aggies have the talent and ability to reverse their fall fortunes. He also believes the desire has picked up because of the adversity the team faced.

"Bronson is so talented, but he's also turned into such a leader," Higgins said. "He wants the team to be successful, so he is pushing people. And we are seeing that out of Bobby this spring. The whole team is starting to hold each other accountable for how hard they are working, how much time they're putting in."

A&M's qualifying for the spring season's first tournament in Hawaii consisted of eight rounds, and the three veterans along with sophomore Andrea Pavan of Italy separated themselves from the remainder of the team for the top four spots.

Higgins chose junior Matt Van Zandt to round out the fivesome because Leilehua Golf Course plays into the hands of a good putter with a good short game.

While the Aggies have thrown away their fall results, the NCAA hasn't.

For the first time in men's collegiate golf, a team must have a .500 "record" to qualify for regionals. A&M is currently 12 "victories" under .500, which means the Aggies finished behind 12 more teams than they finished ahead of in their five fall tournaments.

Higgins believes if the Aggies play to their potential, they can take care of that issue in Hawaii.

"That one tournament in the fall killed us, but I honestly think we can be back over .500 after this week," Higgins said. "When we get back from Hawaii we'll be back over .500. It will only be a concern if we play poorly, but I just don't think that is going to happen."

A&M would have to finish fourth or better in the 20-team field to climb back above .500.

"We are going to tournaments to win tournaments, and we don't care who else is in the field or who we've got to beat to do it," Higgins said. "I'm really anxious to see how we do, because it's a completely different attitude than we had even last year when we were ranked in the Top 10."

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.

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