After a brilliant first two rounds, the ASU men’s golf team relaxed its grip on the prestigious field just enough for a top five finish to slide out of its grasp.
The tournament, simply called The Prestige, produced red numbers all week, with the top four teams finishing better than 21-under-par.
ASU was hanging with that group at 12-under-par through the first two days but that relaxed grip which came in the form of three players having their worst rounds proved too much to overcome.
“We have talent,” ASU coach Tim Mickelson said. “We have the ability to get ourselves in to have a good finish. Yet because of freshman inexperience we’re going to have times where we don’t play very well,”
In every tournament this year the team continues to have problems scoring consistently. Great rounds hovering around par are followed up with devastating scores in the 80s.
In the first three tournaments ASU golfers have six times posted decent first round scores only to see their tournament hopes disappear with second-round scores of at least five more strokes.
In this tournament there were two similar occurrences: freshman Austin Quick, who finished tied for 70th with an 11-over-par 227 (72, 84, 71) and freshman Stan Gautier, who finished tied for 64th with an 8-over-par 224 (72, 69, 81)
The double and triple-bogeys are becoming a problem for the team as well.
Junior Jin Song recorded seven birdies in his first round only to have a career round wiped away by two double bogeys and one triple bogey, leading to a two-over-par 74 instead.
Three of the five golfers had at least five double bogeys or higher throughout the tournament.
“The good news is that I know that the guys have the ability to make a lot of birdies and give themselves the opportunity to score low,” Mickelson said. “But the fact that they are also making a lot of double bogeys means that they are either making bad shots or they are hitting bad shots while making poor decisions.”
There is some light at the end of the tunnel for the Sun Devils, though, as Mickelson said this would be one of the easiest ways for the team to make up strokes.
“Instead of maybe having three double bogeys maybe they only have one or two,” Mickelson said, “If everybody saves two shots a tournament, we are saving ten shots. That’s a lot.”
There was some good for ASU at The Prestige, and it came in the form of Spencer Fletcher. The lone senior on the team has assumed the leadership role emphatically while recording two top-ten finishes. He had the lead after his first round score of a 6-under-par 66 and flirted with the top spot the whole tournament.
If it weren’t for Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan breaking a school record with a 15-under-par 201, then Fletcher would have had a good shot at his first career victory. After the final day, he was only three strokes back from second.
“I think he knew he had a chance to win this tournament and maybe he got a little too excited when he started the round,” Mickelson said, “His two top-tens this year are against very good collegiate fields.”
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
