The ASU men's golf team heads to Las Vegas today looking to repeat the success it enjoyed last year in Sin City at the Southern Highlands Collegiate.
Last year, the team won the event at the par-72, 7,510 yard Southern Highlands Golf Club to begin a stretch in which they won three of four tournaments.
The Sun Devils will return with four players who shared in last season's success: seniors Jesse Mueller and Kendall Critchfield, junior Alejandro Canizares and sophomore Niklas Lemke.
"It was good for us," coach Randy Lein said of last year's win. "We were playing against eight of the top-ranked teams in the nation. We knew what we had to do and we did it and that's always satisfying."
In 2004, Canizares and Mueller finished tied for sixth at 5-under 211, while Lemke finished tied for 18th (1-under 215) and Critchfield tied for 61st (13-over 229).
After the team finished fourth last week at the Puerto Rico Classic, Lein will be starting an identical lineup this weekend. Senior Pat Moore, who tied for 28th at 3-over in Puerto Rico, will make his first trip to the Southern Highlands Collegiate since his freshman year and rounds out the lineup.
"Usually when we get through March and into April, as the days get longer, things do start to gel," Lein said. "We had a qualifying and the same guys qualified to play again."
Canizares is having a career spring season, entering the tournament with two individual wins in his last three outings.
Lein said it would take more than another standout performance from Canizares for the Sun Devils to pickup a win in Las Vegas.
"I'm hoping that Kendall plays just as well, if not better," Lein said, referring to Critchfield's eighth-place finish last week. "If all five guys play well then we should have a good shot at wining."
Recently, the Sun Devils have had to contend with grainy greens at coastal courses in Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
Lein said Southern Highland's conditions should be easier for his team to negotiate.
"It used to be one of the courses they played the Las Vegas Open on," he said. "The condition of the greens is stellar, so they will be cured and rolling fast, which are the conditions good players like."
With just three tournaments left until the Pac-10 championships in Walla Walla, Wash., players have less than two months to prove themselves.
"At this point these five look fairly secure, but we're playing six guys at the conference championships," Lein said. "So we're still looking for the sixth guy."
Reach the reporter at mark.saxon@asu.edu.
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