Depth is a commodity for NCAA coaches and a blessing for teams hoping to make postseason runs.
For ASU men’s golf coach Randy Lein, depth on his team is something to be excited about in 2010.
The Sun Devils, who received a preseason No. 12 ranking in the Golf World/Nike Coaches’ Poll, boast a roster filled with experience.
“We’ve got as much depth from one to five as we’ve ever had,” Lein said. “We’ve always had two or three really good players, then a lot of it depended upon on our fourth or fifth guy. Now we’ve got five guys that any one of the five could potentially win the individual title.”
ASU not only is striving to win the individual title this weekend at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, but to defend its team title as well.
ASU took home a thrilling victory in 2009, defeating Oklahoma State by two strokes.
“We are defending champs,” Lein said. “We won last year against a very good field. We beat Oklahoma State by two and right now they are preseason ranked [No. 1]. Hopefully we’ll play well enough to find ourselves in a final pairing come Sunday like last year.”
The Sun Devils return to the par-70 Olympia Fields Country Club, about 40 minutes south of Chicago, where they claimed the win last season.
“Three of the guys played last year in Chicago so they are familiar with the golf course,” Lein said. “It’s a good test, it’s a good ball-strikers course, which for us, we traditionally always have good ball-strikers where [with] tough courses we play our better golf.”
ASU will send a mature five player lineup loaded with talent. Junior Phil Francis, and seniors Scott Pinckney, Jesper Kennegard, James Byrne, and Thomas Buran will tee off for the Sun Devils in Illinois.
“In Chicago we are going to be bringing out our strongest team,” Pinckney said. “All our games keep getting better and better the more tournaments we play in. When we go tournament to tournament we get into a rhythm and we start playing well.”
The five Sun Devils face the tall task of competing against nine NCAA championship teams. Among the competitors at this weekend’s tournament are reigning NCAA Champion Augusta State and runner-up Oklahoma State.
Lein expects his Sun Devils to take advantage of their experience over the course of the tournament.
“The other guys have been here, they know what to expect,” Lein said. “They know how [assistant coach Mickey Yokoi] and I coach. They all know one another’s game and they also know how good we are and how good we should be playing. They are excited about this weekend.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
