In its last test before heading to Pullman, Washington, for the Pac-12 Championships, the ASU men’s golf team had its worst finish of the season while still finishing in the top-five.
The Sun Devils had a two-tournament win streak snapped at the 69th Annual Western Intercollegiate as they finished in fourth place with a 25-over 1075. Texas won the even with a 2-over 1052.
It was a struggle out at the Pasatiempo Golf Club in northern California for every team in the field but ASU still managed still have some success including their two best players.
Juniors Jon Rahm and Max Rottluff both finished in the top-10 in the tournament. Rahm finished in third place with a 4-under 206, five strokes behind Texas’ Scottie Scheffler for the lead.
Rahm shot 2-under 68 in the final round with just one bogey; he had just seven over the three rounds.
Rottluff finished tied for seventh place with a 1-under 209. Like his teammate, Rottluff only had one bogey in the final round on Sunday but with his five birdies outscored Rahm by two strokes on the final day with a 4-under 66. Rottluff had some trouble in the second round yesterday scoring five bogeys with no birdies for a five-over 75.
Also finishing inside the top-20 was sophomore Ki Taek Lee who finished tied for 17th with a five-over 215. It was Lee’s best finish since finishing 11th at the Alister MacKenzie Invite.
Lee, Rahm and Rottluff were the only Sun Devils to finish under par in California this weekend.
With the Pac-12 Championships on the horizon, it is worth noting that both the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal finished ahead of the Sun Devils this weekend. Of course they are both teams they have been in tournaments with before this weekend and have come out on top in previous meetings as well. They also finished ahead of five other Pac-12 schools.
This was the last tournament for every team in the field before the conference tournaments begin, so many likely looked at it more as a tune up than anything and ASU may have looked at it the same way.
Just as a point of fact, senior Ben Shur was put in the lineup for the Sun Devils for the first time since the Amer Ari Invitational in February so this event may have been used just to give players like him and Lee, who hasn't been in the lineup since the Warrior Princeville Makai Invite in November, another look before the postseason events start.
The Sun Devils have not finished worse than fourth place in any event since they finished sixth at their first event of the season back in September. So going into the Pac-12 Championships, they still have to be considered as the hottest team in the conference with two of the hottest players in the nation right now. They will go into the conference tournament as favorites, as they will in the NCAA tournaments.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or follow @bill_slane on Twitter.
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