Louisville and Max Kennedy sweep Aggie Invitational titles

The Louisville Cardinals came to the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas and walked away with the team and individual championships of the Aggie Invitational hosted by Texas A&M.

Louisville took an 11-stroke lead into Tuesday's final round which proved to be enough of a cushion to hold off the host Aggies and a hard-charging LSU squad to claim its first team title of the season.

Behind medalist Max Kennedy, Louisville's 54-hole score of 12-under 852 was good for a three-stroke win over Texas A&M, which was playing without the services of Masters low amateur Sam Bennett, and was eight clear of LSU, which closed with a 12-under 276 over the final 18 holes to climb six spots up the leaderboard into third place at 4-under 860.

Max Kennedy

Kennedy, a junior from Dublin, Ireland, shot an even-par 72 on Tuesday to finish at 7-under 209 to claim a one-stroke victory over four others, including teammate Juri Zuska, LSU's Luke Haskew, TCU's Gustav Frimodt and Texas A&M's Phichaksn Maichon.

The Dubliner took a one-shot lead into the final round and was able to withstand hot rounds by Haskew (68), Zuska (70) and Frimodt (71) to capture his first career collegiate victory.

In addition to Kennedy and Zuska, Sebastian Moss also finished in the top-10 for Louisville, tying for sixth at 5-under 211.

The talk around the Aggies was about who was missing from their lineup.

Bennett sat out the tournament after a long week at Augusta National where he finished tied for 16 in his first Masters appearance, earning low amateur honors.

Without their leader, Texas A&M came up just short in defending its home turf at The Traditions Club, as Maichon (t-2; -6) and Vishnu Sadagopan (t-14; -1) were the only two Aggie players to finish in red numbers.

Bennett is expected to rejoin the Aggies for next week's SEC Championships at the Sea Island Golf Club Seaside Course in St. Simons Island, Georgia.