The ASU men’s golf team will battle 19 other competitors as well as the elements when it competes in the annual Amer Ari Invitational in Hawaii starting on Feb. 2.
The Invite includes six schools ranked in the top-25, with four of them ranked in the top six.
While the rounds may take a long time, when playing in Hawaii there is another almost certain difficulty.
“Hawaii is generally pretty windy,” junior Philip Francis said. “So you have to go over there with the confidence of knowing how to control the golf ball, knowing how to keep it low and below the wind.”
The Sun Devils will officially start their spring season with this tournament, and while they have not won a Hawaiian tournament since February 1995, the year prior to their national championship season, ASU coach Randy Lein is optimistic.
“Probably in the last 15 years this is the most talented team I’ve had,” Lein said.
One of the biggest reasons for that has to be the play of senior Jesper Kennegard, who won the event in February 2008 by scoring a 13-under-par over three rounds.
The performance helped the Sun Devils to a tie for second place in the tournament that year with only the defending national champion, Stanford, ahead of them.
While the course they will be playing on is different than what Kennegard played, he still thinks he will be up to the challenge.
“If I hit my driver well, I will most of the time have a good score,” Kennegard said. “That’s the key for me.”
Lein agreed, stating that he thinks the toughness of this course will help the team, which has plenty of experience with five seniors and two juniors.
“The stronger the course, I think our chances are better, just because of the experience and how good my guys are,” Lein said.
Another point of interest is senior Oscar Zetterwall, who is making his ASU debut.
Zetterwall transferred to ASU from the University of New Orleans, where he played his previous two years after competing for Texas State as a freshman.
Since he was ineligible for the fall, Zetterwall is looking to make an impact in his first college tournament this year.
“My goal is to play with a lot of courage,” Zetterwall said. “I am very excited to play for a new team, and I have actually always wanted to come here.”
Zetterwall went on to say that because this is his last year he is really keying in on two goals: an individual victory and a solid team performance at the NCAA Championships.
Even with the incentive of playing their first tournament since Oct. 12, 2010, this event offers something else for the Sun Devils.
“We go a couple of days before and go to the beach,” Kennegard said. “I mean it’s probably the best tournament of the year.”
The reason for this, Lein said, is that Hawaii is exempt from rules regarding when a team can arrive, whereas in other events the team can’t arrive until within 24 hours of the practice round.
Senior James Byrne mentioned how the extra practice time is going to help him especially.
“You get to figure out the greens better, what clubs you’re going to hit off the tee, and basically just create a better game plan,” Byrne said.
Senior Thomas Buran will be the fifth member of the team headed to the invitational.
Lein has only won two Hawaiian tournaments during his tenure at ASU, which he did in consecutive years, 1994 and 1995.
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
