On Friday three ASU freshmen will walk out onto the first tee box, prepared to defend one of college golf’s most historic programs in one the most difficult tournaments of the year.
That weight falls on the shoulders of Mathias Schjoelberg, Cameron Palmer and Austin Quick in the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational. Fortunately they won’t be without help.
Spencer Fletcher, the lone senior on the team, and junior Jin Song both saw action in the 2010-11 season. Without much experience though, expectations will be dialed back by new head coach Tim Mickelson.
Mickelson, who took over for Randy Lein after close to 20 seasons, moved from University of San Diego to ASU in the middle of the summer and hasn’t really had much time to settle in until now.
“I’m excited to get the season started,” Mickelson said. “It feels good to actually be settled and getting into a daily routine, but I’m excited to see how these guys are able to contend at a very high level against some of the best teams.”
Some of the teams that the Sun Devils will compete against are the best in the country, such as No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Texas, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Duke and No. 9 Auburn.
“These guys are used to playing at a high level so they are not going to intimidated by playing Oklahoma State, but it’s time to perform,” Mickelson said, “So when we go there we need to play our best against some of the best teams in the country. That’s something we should always be looking forward to doing every year.”
Last year the team finished tied for last in the tournament despite winning it in 2009. Yet that history hasn’t gotten much attention from the team.
“It’s a completely different team,” Mickelson said. “Only two of the guys on the team even knew the fact that we finished dead last last year, and only two of them knew that we won the year before. So with this team, the only time we are ever going to talk about the past is when we talk about 1990 and 1996, which are the two years the men’s team won the national championship.
“We will also remind them of the six times that men have won the individual national championship. Besides that we are not going to talk about the past because it doesn’t do us any good.”
This tournament will show a lot about the Sun Devils as their young cast has expressed much enthusiasm in regard to returning the team to its former glory.
However, Fletcher is the only player that saw significant playing time so there will be a lot of unfamiliar faces underneath the new black golf shirts.
“Obviously the first college tournament is going to be a learning experience for all three of the freshmen,” Mickelson said. “We will see how good they play under pressure and deal with the difficulty of the golf course and the difficulty of the teams playing.”
The Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational will run through Sunday and can be followed on golfstat.com.
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
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