In its second tournament of the season, the No. 19 Texas men’s golf team finished eighth at the Ben Hogan Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Sixteen total teams participated, with 13 of them ranked in the Top 25 of the Bushnell/Golfweek DI Coaches Poll. Seniors Mason Nome and Travis Vick were back in the lineup following the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, as well as freshmen Christiaan Maas and Keaton Vo. Sophomore Alejandro Gonzalez made his season debut shooting 15-over-par in the tournament in replacement of freshman Jacob Sosa.

After bringing home a national championship last year, the Longhorns opened the season with a 10th place finish at the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational in September. The result caused Texas’ ranking in the Coaches Poll to slip from No. 9 to No. 19, a slower start than the reigning national champions probably had in mind.

Head coach John Fields said his Longhorns aren’t settled enough to compete with the best teams in the nation yet. He said despite the Longhorns’ success last year, they need to reset and keep going. Fields told the Daily Texan they’ve “climbed Mount Everest” but “have to climb it again.”

Round one started off a little slow for Texas as the Longhorns finished tied for ninth place at a team score of 284 and six strokes behind first-place North Carolina. Gonzalez and Maas led the team, shooting an even par each. 

Round two saw better results; the Longhorns ended with a team score of 280. Maas continued to impress, leading the team once again with a 3-under par scoreline. Heading into the final round, Texas was tied for seventh.

The Longhorns fell back to eighth place by the end of round three, shooting 284 as a team for the second time in the tournament. For the third straight round, Maas led the way with another 3-under par scorecard and shot a combined score of 6-under for the tournament. He finished tied for third on the overall leaderboard. 

Fields called Maas a “tremendous talent” that brings “a lot to the table.”

With little insurance behind Maas, Texas barely finished in the top half of the leaderboard. Vick finished tied for 31st with an overall score of 213 and 3-over par, which was the second best score for the Longhorns at Fort Worth. Nome posted 6-over par and was tied for 47th on the overall leaderboard. Vo shot 8-over par, and Gonzalez shot a tough 9-over par for round three. 

The Longhorns will hope to bounce back at the Stephens Cup in Juno Beach, Florida. The tournament will be played across three days from Oct. 10-12.