For the six former ASU golfers in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, participating in a marquee tournament close to home was a rewarding experience.
Phil Mickelson, easily the crowd favorite on the highest-attended event during the PGA Tour, had a disappointing final round at The Players Course in Scottsdale.
Mickelson was positioned in the top 10 after Saturday, but double-bogeyed hole No. 8 Sunday and finished the day two-over par.
“Obviously I didn’t play the way I wanted to today, but I had a fun week here,” Mickelson said. “The crowd (Saturday) was the most I’ve ever seen. I love that 16th hole. I love walking through the tunnel. It’s a feeling you don’t ever get at any other hole throughout the year. It really makes this tournament special.”
Mickelson was right. The Saturday crowd set a PGA Tour record with 173,210 fans in attendance.
All six former Sun Devils made the final cut, although two didn’t find out until Saturday morning.
Pat Perez and Chez Reavie each made the cut by a single stroke.
Perez triple-bogeyed his final hole on day two and left the course that afternoon not knowing whether he made the cut.
Play was suspended on Friday due to darkness, leaving Perez and Reavie wondering if they were going to play the weekend.
After the second round concluded early Saturday morning, Waste Management announced the cut at even par, meaning 78 of the 132 golfers who competed advanced to weekend play.
Perez didn’t disappoint in the final two days of the tournament.
He ended up finishing the event in 19th place overall. Perez was seven-under par over the final two days.
Reavie was inconsistent throughout the tournament with scores of 66, 76, 72 and 67 on the par-71.
Two other former ASU golfers, Matt Jones and Jeff Quinney, received sponsor exemptions to play in the tournament.
Quinney tied Mickelson at six-under par, good for 26th place. He moved up 13 spots on the final day with a 68 in the final round.
“Overall, (I had a) pretty good week,” Quinney said. “I hadn’t played any tournaments in 2012, and I don’t have exempt status this year, so I’m playing on sponsor invites. I was happy to make the cut and do a little more than that.”
Jones had a strong Saturday, shooting four-under par and was tied for 12th entering the final day.
On the final day, he teed off in Mickelson’s group. However, he struggled Sunday with a final round of 74.
Billy Mayfair was the final former Sun Devil to make the cut, finishing the tournament one-under par.
Stanley comes back to win Open
Last week, Kyle Stanley crumbled under pressure on the final hole, blowing a three-stroke lead on the 18th hole in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
As stunning as his triple-bogey and subsequent playoff loss was, Stanley pulled off an even more incredible comeback in the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Stanley trailed by eight strokes entering the tournament’s final day, but ended up out-shooting Spencer Levin 65-to-75 to win the tournament.
Levin led for nearly the entire tournament and was 17-under par after the first three rounds.
Stanley said he got some redemption this week after last week’s meltdown. He also felt bad for Levin because he experienced the pain Levin was feeling last week.
“Spencer’s a great player, and I certainly feel for him going through it last week,” Stanley said. “He’s too good to not recover.
“I think you have to accept your ups and downs and just stay neutral. You can’t get too high, can’t get too low.”
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
