A terrific final round saved the ASU men’s golf team from a last place finish in the Pac-10 Championships at the Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., over the weekend.
Despite being one of the more veteran teams, the Sun Devils played most of the tournament in last place and were a surprising seven strokes out of ninth after one round.
“It was just a bad day of golf,” ASU coach Randy Lein said.
The top three ASU competitors were quickly out of the race for the individual title. Since they had no chance of accomplishing their pre-tournament goals, the Sun Devils pulled it together against the Wildcats. The teams were paired with each other for the final two rounds, and ASU was able to recover and finish eight strokes ahead of WSU, securing a small victory in what was overall a disappointing weekend.
“That was really the only motivation we had,” Lein said. “We played pretty well Sunday, but it was just much too little, too late.”
The teams played 36 holes on the first day, which was key in ASU’s collapse, as the Sun Devils didn’t have much time to regroup after the first round before teeing off for the second.
“You don’t really have a break to try to make a correction if you needed to, because as soon as we got off the first round they said, ‘Hey, you’re on the tee,’” Lein said.
The team’s top player, senior Scott Pinckney, expressed his concerns about the format before the tournament, saying it was all about being rested. He was one of the few ASU golfers that recorded a score close to par in the second round.
The other Sun Devils fell back, including a disastrous 13-over-par 83 from three-time All-American senior Jesper Kennegard.
“The first day we did exactly what no team wants to do: play mediocre and poor golf and put yourself in a hole,” Lein said.
All the teams except for WSU and ASU had a player finish in the top 11. Senior Oscar Zetterwall, the only Sun Devil competitor who had yet to finish in the top 10 this year, had ASU’s best score, finishing tied for 20th, while the Cougars’ top player finished tied for 16th. ASU junior Philip Francis recorded the only subpar round for the Sun Devils and finished second on the team and tied for 28th overall.
“We were all expecting to salvage the season with some good play, but it just didn’t happen,” Lein said.
USC sophomore Martin Trainer won the event in a playoff, defeating OSU sophomore Alex Moore after seven extra holes. Trainer led his team to a first-place finish, but received plenty of help from his teammates, as three Trojans finished in the top eight.
The team will now look to regionals to try to revive their season. With six players on the team in their final year of eligibility, the tournament will certainly be an emotional one, providing one last shot at a strong finish to the season.
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
