In perhaps the most elite invitational of the collegiate golf season, the ASU men’s golf team didn’t step up to the challenge.
ASU shot a plus-80, 944 in the Southern Highlands Invitational held in Las Vegas, and was entrenched at the bottom of the standings throughout the three-day competition.
“I think the golf course is just too tough for us and we were not able to play the golf course in a way to make enough pars,” ASU coach Tim Mickelson said.
Thirteen of the 15 teams in the field were ranked in Golfweek’s top 50, and 11 of those were in the top 25. Not much was expected from ASU because of the rankings.
ASU fought in a battle to avoid last place, and briefly passed New Mexico State late on the final day. However, the Aggies ultimately retook the lead over ASU.
New Mexico State had 12 double-bogeys or worse on that third day, eight of them triple-bogeys or worse, but still held on to take 14th place by a single stroke.
New Mexico State was the one school ASU ranked ahead of prior to the Southern Highlands Invitational.
With the last-place finish, the Sun Devils now face the growing reality that they may miss nationals for only the second time since 1983, after dropping to 23 games below .500.
Because ASU finished worse than the other 14 schools, their record slips 14 further games below .500. With only a few more invitationals remaining, there may not be enough time to reach the .500 mark.
“I think the invitational put an exclamation point on the .500 rule,” Mickelson said. “If we want to make the postseason, we have to win the conference. If you win the Pac-12 championship, it doesn’t matter what your record is.”
ASU shot 22-over par on the first day, 21-over the next, and 37-over on the final day. Most schools had their worst performance on day three. The average round of golf for all players was 78.52 on the third day, compared to 74.85 over the first two days on the par-72 course.
“The first two days the conditions were perfect, 70 degrees and a three to five mph wind,” Mickelson said. “The final day, the bulk of the round was played in about 15 to 20 mph winds, and there were gusts up to 30 mph. It was much more windy the final day, which caused the scores to be higher.”
Freshman Austin Quick led ASU in his return to the starting lineup with a plus-11.
The other four Sun Devils finished in the bottom 20 of the 78-player field. Freshman Mathias Schjoelberg, playing as the team’s top golfer, shot a plus-24.
Senior Spencer Fletcher was plus-22 over, junior Jin Song was 28-over, and Stan Gautier was 31-over.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Janssen@asu.edu
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