Freshman Jon Rahm Rodriguez watches to see if his putt will find the whole during the ASU Thunderbird Invitational on April 7. Rahm Rodriguez led the Sun Devils with a score of -1. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman)The ASU men's golf team (+17) placed 12th at their home tournament the Thunderbird Invitational in Tempe on Sunday.
Collectively, the Sun Devils posted their best round of the three-day event in the tournament's final day.
However, ASU came into the tournament being the fourth highest ranked squad in the field of 18 and ASU assistant coach Joe Prince was not pleased with the 12th place finish.
"Obviously, we're not satisfied with our play, with this being our home tournament this is kind of our backyard," Prince said. "We're pleased with how we played today, but overall, it's pretty disappointing to have finished in the bottom half of the field in our home tournament."
First-year players led the way for ASU throughout the weekend.
Individually, freshman Jon Rahm Rodriguez (-1) led ASU at the invitational. Rodriguez ended Sunday's round in a seven-way tie for 11th. He tied with the No. 1 ranked player in the nation, Cal sophomore Michael Kim.
Freshman, Trey Kaahanui (+1), tied for 20th while another frosh, Max Rottluff (+2), tied for 23rd. Among others, junior Spencer Lawson tied with Rottluff in the 23rd spot.
"As a team we didn't play how we wanted to," Rottluff said. "We're a young team; it's a lot of our first home tournament, but we learned a lot."
Some of Karsten Golf Course's characteristics affected participant's games negatively, including Rottluff's.
"We play out here a lot and the course plays in much easier conditions," Rottluff said. "Pin positions are simpler and the rough is usually shorter, the greens may not be as fast. You go out there and over think and put a lot of pressure on yourself."
Team-wise, UNLV (-9) finished atop the leader board. It shot seven under in the final round, just edging out the No. 1 team in the country, Cal.
Junior Nicholas Maruri (+5) helped the Rebels to victory with a two-under round Sunday.
"We've been pretty solid this week," Maruri said. "We've struggled the past few months but have been working really hard back home. We came in with a good attitude and have felt confident throughout the weekend. It's definitely shown."
The Sun Devils are looking to shake the tough outing off and are looking toward next weekend. ASU travels to San Jose, Calif., April 13 to April 14 to take part in the Western Intercollegiate, the last tournament of the regular season.
"We saw really good play out of our guys today that will carry over to out next tournament," Prince said.
Live scoring of the Western Intercollegiate and results of the Thunderbird Invitational can be found at golfstat.com.
Reach the reporter at adrian.martinez.1@asu.edu
