When the ASU men’s golf team travels to San Diego on Feb. 13, coach Tim Mickelson will encounter a homecoming of sorts.
Prior to coaching the Sun Devils, Mickelson led the University of San Diego program for eight seasons.
Last summer, ASU pried Mickelson away from USD and hired him as the head coach for the Sun Devils.
Mickelson’s biggest asset for ASU in the San Diego Intercollegiate Classic might be freshman Austin Quick, who is coming off his best performance of the season.
Quick finished in the top 15 for the first time in his career and shot a score of 68 on the second day of the Amer Ari Invitational. His score was the best of the field that day.
Mickelson said it’s too early to know if Quick was playing out of his mind in Hawaii or if he was just beginning to realize his potential.
“I think time will tell,” Mickelson said. “Being a freshman (and) very young, you never know how kids will transition into the starting lineup.”
One tournament isn’t a large enough sample size to gauge the strength of a player.
“We don’t really know (how good Quick is), just like the basketball player (Jeremy) Lin for the Knicks,” Mickelson said. “After one game, you ask if he’s going to be successful, people say no, but no one really knew what he was capable of.”
Senior Spencer Fletcher was on the other end of the spectrum last week, but he is expected to bounce back from a sub-par first tournament.
“We certainly expect him to play better than he did in Hawaii,” Mickelson said. “He had a great fall. I think this type of course suits him better than Hawaii because of the type of grass.”
The Sun Devils were pleased overall with their performance last week and are close to putting all the pieces together.
“We just need a couple more players to start playing better,” Mickelson said. “We got some nice production out of Austin and Mathias (Schjoelberg) played well. Spencer struggled a little bit, but he was still helpful. We need a little more production at the bottom of our lineup.”
Quick and Schjoelberg played as the third and fourth ASU golfers last week, so Mickelson was referring to freshman David Lowe at the bottom of the order.
The Brophy Prep product had a strong first day, but could not make enough shots on the second and third days. He finished 19-over par in the invitational.
In college, the lowest score of a team’s five players is dropped, so schools can absorb one bad round per day.
Just like last week, ASU will compete against some of the best teams in the country. The 15-team field features three Pac-12 schools ranked in the top five: UCLA, USC and Stanford.
Note: Freshman Cameron Palmer will compete as an individual for his second invitational of the 2011-12 season.
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu
