To be the best, you have to beat the best.
The ASU men’s golf team faces most of collegiate golf’s upper echelon in the Amer Ari Invitational in Kona, Hawaii Feb. 1-3.
Seven of the top 11 ranked teams in the country, according to Golfweek’s rankings, will square off in the upcoming invitational, including No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Oregon and No. 4 UCLA.
ASU is ranked No. 57 in the nation by the same source and is also No. 14 in the 20-team field.
Senior Spencer Fletcher emphasized the enormity of the Hawaiian tournament.
“Hawaii’s a big tournament,” Fletcher said. “It’s probably the toughest field of the year besides nationals. If we play well there and finish in the top five, then we’re in a really good spot.”
However, some schools may be off their game because the Amer Ari Invitational signals the end of the two-to-three month offseason between the fall and spring seasons.
“Every school is in the same boat where they had to take a couple months off,” said coach Tim Mickelson. “A lot of players are from poor-weather states, so they weren’t able to practice as much as they wanted.”
After not playing competitively for over three months, the ASU men’s golf team held a competition last week to battle for the five spots in the invitational.
Mickelson had the team practice on its own over winter break, yielding mixed results because of inclement weather.
He said the team looked shaky in the intra-squad competition.
“They were definitely rusty when we got back,” he said. “The scores were close to what I was expecting before, but the games did not look as sharp.”
ASU traveled to Hawaii on Saturday, leaving plenty of time before the invitational begins for the team to shake off the rust.
Mickelson said by the time the invitational begins Feb. 1, the team will have had enough time on the golf course to get back in the swing of things.
“I think we’ll be fine by the time the tournament starts,” Mickelson said.
Of the nine golfers on the roster, only the top five players are allowed to travel with the team.
In the Amer Ari Invitational, ASU will start Fletcher at the No. 1 spot and junior Jin Song second. Freshmen Mathias Schjoelberg, Austin Quick and David Lowe will round out the top five.
Having not played against another NCAA team since Oct. 18, Fletcher is excited to finally get back on the course.
“I’m definitely anxious,” Fletcher said. “It’s been so long. We’ve had a long layoff between tournaments.”
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu
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