Freshman Austin Quick was in contention to win the ASU Thunderbird Invitational until the very last hole.
Quick trailed UNLV senior Derek Ernst by one stroke after the 14th hole during the final round, needing a single birdie on one of the last four holes to tie for first place.
Quick’s closest birdie chance came on the 17th hole, but he narrowly missed a birdie putt.
“I knew I had to start hitting it well, giving myself birdie chances and make one birdie,” Quick said. “(On holes) 15, 16 (and) 17, I was within 20 feet of the hole. I just couldn’t make a putt.”
Quick then bogeyed the final hole, finishing 7-under par and two shots behind the victor.
“I definitely wanted to win, but I’m really satisfied with second,” Quick said.
After round two, Quick was tied atop the leaderboard at 9-under, and he slept on the pressures associated with potentially winning the tournament.
“I did (put pressure on myself) at the start,” Quick said. “I tried not to. I settled in after the first nine and started to hit the ball a lot better on the back (nine).”
Quick’s first round, 66, and second round, 6,7 were career-bests.
“I was just hitting real well,” Quick said. “I was playing the fade all day, and I just trusted it. I felt like I could have played 40 holes. Everything was going right.”
Men’s golf places sixth
Led by Quick, the ASU men’s golf team finished sixth out of 17 schools in the tournament, one of its better performances of the season.
Entering the third round, ASU held even par and sat tied for fourth place with Pac-12 foe Washington.
ASU slipped during the third round and shot plus-7 on the final day, edging out BYU by a single stroke to hang on for sixth place overall.
“Based on the rankings, we probably should have finished eighth,” ASU coach Tim Mickelson said. “We certainly would have hoped to hang in there closer and beat a couple of the top 10 schools.”
For the first time since early February, ASU finished in the top half of an invitational.
Mickelson said the strong performance gives the team confidence for its next invitational, in Scottsdale on Monday and Tuesday.
Freshman Stan Gautier competed as an individual and was the second highest finisher for ASU at 3-over par.
Freshmen Mathias Schjoelberg shot 4-over and David Lowe 5-over, both placing in the top 30 of the individual leaderboard.
Sophomore Wes Strang, an individual, had to withdraw from the tournament after round one because of hand problems, according to Mickelson.
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu
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