![[year first name lastname] grins after sinking a putt in the Thunderbird Invitational tournament on Saturday, April 4, 2015 at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe. (Ben Moffat/The State Press)](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/asp/bd792ee6-2aca-4b94-ac9e-17543174d0c0.sized-1000x1000.jpg?w=1000)
They'll be back next year, but surely, this was a missed opportunity.
No. 6/3 ASU men's golf finished 39-over-par (+11, +18, +10) in its three rounds at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, which landed the Sun Devils in a tie for 24th in the 30-team field, pending conclusion of the third round, which was suspended because of lightning.
ASU needed to be in the top 15 just to compete in the fourth round. Fourteen teams have already wrapped up their third rounds with scores better than ASU and six more are at least 15 strokes ahead of the Sun Devils with just a couple holes remaining, so their season is over.
Junior Jon Rahm (+1) looks like he will move on to compete for the 72-hole individual championship, which should be decided on Monday after the third round concludes beginning at 4 a.m. PT. The top nine finishers not on advancing teams get to compete. Rahm is in a six-person tie for 17th place overall with only two players from teams outside the current top 15 ahead of him.
Entering the NCAA Championships, Rahm and Stanford sophomore Maverick McNealy were projected to break the single-season scoring record (68.93), but it looks like neither will unless Rahm shoots a season-best 63 (9-under) or better on Monday.
Sophomore Ki Taek Lee (+24), elevated to the team's No. 3 spot for the NCAA Championships, struggled in the final round, carding the same 83 that he did in the first round. He triple bogeyed his first hole on Sunday and also had a quintuple bogey in the round. His 83's ended up being the drop scores after entering play in a groove (top-20 regional finish).
Junior Max Rottluff (+5) finished under par in the team's first 11 invitationals of the 2014-15 season, but was above it in its last three, arguably ASU's most difficult (Pac-12's, regional, NCAA Championships). He had not finished outside the top 20 in any tournament in 2014-15, but tied for 42nd.
Senior Broc Johnson (+18), who got the nod over junior Alberto Sanchez for the last spot in ASU's lineup, shot a 78-79-77, with all three rounds counting toward the Sun Devils' final score. Sanchez had appeared in 11 tournaments this season but was ASU's lowest finisher in the last two.
Considering ASU's success this season, especially in the spring (five tournament victories), the NCAA Championship performance turned into a colossal bust. Other top teams persevered through their struggles. No. 7/6 South Carolina was just six shots ahead of ASU entering Sunday and the Gamecocks shot even par to put themselves in position move on.
But golf is a funny unpredictable game. From the Pac-12, its best teams (ASU, No. 5/7 Stanford) are out, while No. 15/13 USC (+4) and No. 16/17 UCLA (+14) advanced.
Update (June 1, 7:20 a.m.): The third round concluded and ASU's place didn't change. Rahm finished the third round in a tie for 19th. He tees off at 8:10 a.m. Rottluff tied for 42nd with Johnson (T-126), Nicolo Galletti (T-142) Lee (150th) near the bottom of the leaderboard.
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu or follow @jjanssen11 on Twitter.
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