After a great opening round Sunday and a comeback performance in the beginning of the third, the ASU men’s golf team faltered to a fifth place finish in the annual Battle of the Beach tournament in Newport, Calif.
“We kind of tease,” ASU coach Randy Lein said. “We show moments where people understand how good we potentially are. Then the team just falls back out of contention again.”
Leading the team was junior Philip Francis, who finished in seventh place and played consistent golf throughout the tournament with rounds of 70, 69 and 72.
Senior Scott Pinckney finished second on the team with a 3-over-par 203, which tied him for 10th overall.
The biggest surprise was the erratic play of senior Jesper Kennegard, who showed his level of skill as he shot a 1-under-par 69 during his second round, but tied for 66th with his first and third round score. Kennegard finished with a stroke total of 227, 17 shots over par.
Other than Kennegard and Francis, Monday was the most devastating round for the Sun Devils as all other players shot no better than 4-over-par. This was disappointing after a first round that saw every ASU player except Kennegard and senior James Byrne finish with an even-par 70. Byrne shot a 1-over-par 71 and Kennegard a 7-over-par 77.
Seniors Thomas Buran and Oscar Zetterwall finished tied for 29th and 45th, respectively, after both recorded the largest scores for the team on Monday with a 6-over-par 76 and a 7-over-par 77.
UCLA, the number two team in the nation according to the Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, won the event shooting a combined 7-over-par. They were followed by San Diego, who finished at 10-over par, and Augusta State and Washington, who finished third and fourth, respectively.
The team did finish ahead of San Diego State and Arkansas, both of whom are ahead of the unranked Sun Devils in the poll.
“It was good to play strong and put ourselves in the position we want to be in,” Lein said, “but it was disappointing that we weren’t able to finish off like we hoped to.”
After the first round on Sunday ASU was tied for third place and only three shots back from the leader, San Diego. However, Zetterwall double-bogeyed his first hole on Monday and Pinckney had a double-bogey and a triple-bogey during his first nine holes.
The team struggled to stay afloat, as even with the help of Kennegard and Francis’ under par scores they dropped from third to fifth during the second round.
But from one tournament to the next, the Sun Devils are already looking forward to their next tournament: the USC Invitational on Feb. 28.
“We’ve got the talent,” Lein said. “We could go to USC and win and it wouldn’t surprise anyone who’s playing for us. We just need to get the job done.”
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
