KERRVILLE, Texas – The Texans had been playing some of their best golf of the season entering The Big Texan, but they elevated their game even further with a third place result on Monday-Tuesday.
 
It marked Tarleton's third straight top-10 outing as they had three finish in the top-20, two in the top-10, and Alvaro Huidobro take silver at the tournament hosted by UTRGV at Riverhill Country Club in Kerrville.
 
Huidobro turned in a career-best tournament outing of -7 (70, 67, 72) to take tied-second. This made back-to-back top-five finishes for the junior. Over his last two tournaments, Huidobro has shot a combined -11, with an average round score of 68.8. For Tarleton overall, they've had a student-athlete take a top-two spot on the leaderboard in three straight tournaments and four of their last five.
 
Carson Gallaher placed in the top-10, carding -2 (69, 75, 70) for tied-ninth. His tied-ninth finish ties his best since joining the Purple and White. Max Bengtsson placed tied-20th at +3 (74, 75, 70), the fourth time over his last five tournaments he's finished in the top-20. Cristobal Sepulveda at +11 (74, 77, 76, tied-56th) and Chandler Barch at +12 (73, 81, 74, tied-61st) rounded out the Texan group.
 
"It was an overall good performance as a team and it was awesome to see Alvaro turn the corner with back-to-back top-five's," head coach Chance Cain said. "He's been putting a lot of work in his game and it's been great for him to see that starting to pay off. It was good to see the guys fight through the wind yesterday and we are close to turning the corner of closing out. We have a short turnaround before we head to Chambers Bay, so we will get things cleaned up before we tee it up in Seattle."
 
Huidobro led the 89-man field after 36 holes played on Monday. He entered Tuesday ahead by four strokes at -7 following his second round -5 (67), which was a career-best round for him. In his previous tournament, he had matched a career-best round at -4 (68). The medalist at The Big Texan was UTRGV's Javier Neira, who pulled out a 64 in the final round to win by four strokes at -11.
 
Huidobro had just four bogeys across 54 holes, with just one in each of the first two rounds. He was spotless through his first nine holes on Monday with two birdies, and in his career-best round, he responded from a bogey on his second hole with perfect play over the next 16, six birdies and 10 pars. He wrapped up his tournament with 14 pars, two birdies and two bogeys.
 
He had the second most pars in the entire tournament with 39, and was second in Par 4 scoring at -4 (3.87 average score per instance).  
 
Gallaher also started his tournament with near perfect play, turning in a spotless first 13 holes with 10 pars and three birdies. He had the tied-fifth most birdies overall with 13, and had the tied-fifth best score on Par 3's at +1.
 
Bengtsson went unscathed through his first 12 holes of the tournament, with nine pars and three birdies. In his second round, he eagled the fourth hole, a Par 5 548-yarder. For the tournament, Bengtsson was tied-second in Par 5 scoring at -7 (4.42 score per instance).
 
Barch was tied-fifth in Par 3 scoring (+1) and had the tied-seventh most birdies (12).
 
As a team, Tarleton holed the second most birdies (55), and was second on Par 5's (-20). They took third in the team standings for the second time this season.
 
The Texans will be back in action on Monday-Tuesday, April 1-2, at the Seattle U Redhawk Invitational at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington. Just two regular season tournaments remain before the WAC Championship.