The ASU men’s golf team is looking to move forward.
After a disappointing 14th place finish in a tough field at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, the team moves on to face some easier competition in the William H. Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque, NM on Friday.
With teams from the Sun Belt, Mountain West and the Western Athletic Conferences competing, a low finish would be disappointing for what looks to be the most storied program in the field.
Still, ASU men’s golf coach Tim Mickelson isn’t carrying any specific expectations coming into his second tournament as head coach.
“We obviously know that the field is not as difficult as our first tournament but we still have to go out, play well and perform otherwise the results will be the same,” Mickelson said.
With the tournament in the southwest instead of Illinois, the players will be more familiar with the way the course plays out. In Illinois the players had problems with the long rough and how little the ball rolled.
That will change somewhat with the rolling hills and dry fairways of the University of New Mexico Championship Course.
“Being out here in the desert we don’t have that type of grass and we don’t have that type of thickness of rough,” Mickelson said. “So most of our guys were unfamiliar of what they could do out of the rough. This course we should feel more comfortable on.”
Freshmen David Lowe and Stan Gautier will be making their ASU debuts.
The two beat out Austin Quick and Cameron Palmer, who competed in the last tournament, to join senior Spencer Fletcher, junior Jin Song and freshman Mathias Schjoelberg. Quick will compete for the team as an individual.
“David has played much better in this qualifying then he did in the first qualifying,” Mickelson said. “So I think he’s better transitioned to college now. He’s a very good student; so I think he was a little overwhelmed for the first few weeks, but now he is a lot more comfortable. They both are playing better. So this is definitely a stronger team or at least a better prepared and more complete team than we were able to take to Chicago.”
In their preparation for the trip to Albuquerque, the men’s golf team has run into a speed bump. The ASU Karsten Course shut down for re-sodding from Sept. 26 to Oct. 11, and while the team can still use its practice facility, which includes putting greens and a driving range, it has to look elsewhere for on-course practice.
“We cannot use that as an excuse,” Mickelson said. “How many courses that are going to be available to us remains to be seen, but I don’t think we will have an issue.”
Moving forward seems to be the mantra coming from the men’s golf team and they have an excellent chance to make a statement to the other west coast teams this weekend.
“Everybody was disappointed with the finish in Chicago and the team has been playing better as a whole,” Mickelson said. “So the scores have been better and the guys definitely feel better about themselves. I think the guys expect to compete very well and I think they are definitely expecting a top three or top four finish.”
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
