Despite high expectations, the No. 26 ASU men’s golf team finished 18th in its ninth-consecutive national finals appearance at the Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
With six ASU players in their final year of eligibility, it was a tough end to what was a disappointing season. While the team finished ahead of many opponents ranked above of them, including No. 5 Florida and No. 10 LSU, ASU coach Randy Lein said it didn’t make much of a difference.
“You are there to qualify for match play. So if you finished ninth, 18th or 27th, you still didn’t make the elite eight,” Lein said, “It was disappointing because the guys really felt, by and large, we had the firepower to make it into match play and then everything starts over again.”
The Sun Devils did have a chance in the third round to climb into the top group when they were tied for 12th with Southern California. But everything unraveled and the team dropped four shots on the last six holes.
The inconsistent play plagued the team once again as three of the five players had rounds over 80. Jesper Kennegard was one of four players to shoot a 4-under-par 68 round or better, but followed it up with a 12-over-par 84 score in his final round.
“(In the second round) he hit it off the tee better and he had some incredible up and downs to save par,” Lein said, “It just kind of caught up to him on the last day. When you are five or six over through five or six holes, then you are just trying to minimize the damage. Then you have another player doing the same thing, you just can’t be counting 80s and expect to advance.”
The other player was Oscar Zetterwall, who had the most difficult tournament of all the ASU competitors, shooting a 27-over-par 243 and finishing tied for 139th.
High rounds were not hard to come at Karsten Creek. The course is known as one of the most difficult courses in collegiate golf. The last time the national championship was held there Clemson won the stroke play title with a score of 39-over par.
This year it was very different, with No. 2 UCLA posting the best stroke play score with an 8-over-par 872, despite a 10-over-par 298 final round.
The individual title winner was LSU senior John Peterson, who broke the course record with a 7-under-par 65 second round. His 5-under-par 211 was six strokes better than 2003 winner Alejandro Canizares’ score.
The difference in scoring has been mostly accredited to changes made on the course. A few holes were shortened to help the players finish faster.
No. 6 Augusta State ended up winning the tournament, defeating No. 12 Georgia in the match play final. Both teams finished outside the top four in stroke play with Augusta State barely making it in, finishing just two strokes ahead of ninth and in seventh place overall.
Top seeds No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 Georgia Tech were bounced in the first round of match play.
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu.
