The No. 21 ASU men's golf team finished seventh in the Gopher Invitational in Minnesota on Monday with a 2-over par on the scorecard.
In the team's first tournament of the fall season, sophomore Alex del Rey picked up his third top-10 finish of his ASU career.
Head coach Matt Thurmond said del Rey has matured immensely since his freshman year and showed a lot of patience in the recent tournament.
"He has special skills and when he plays clean like that he will be very tough to beat," Thurmond said.
Del Rey was in contention in all three rounds and wrapped up his first top-5 finish of the fall season, shooting 5-under par and completing two rounds below 70 for the tournament.
The only other Sun Devil to land in the top 50 individually was sophomore Blake Wagoner — tying for 31st in his best performance since the Pac-12 Championships. Wagoner tallied a 69 in round one, which gave him his first under-70 round this fall.
Thurmond said the course at Windsong Farm Golf Club was tough and the greens were firm and fast, leaving the team unable to finish in a contending slot.
"As a team we are very disappointed," Thurmond said. "We expect to be contending every tournament and we just didn't have it this weekend."
Freshmen Paul Chaplet and Mason Andersen made their Sun Devil debuts at the invitational as well. Chaplet finished 15-over par, while Andersen finished 11-over par.
ASU is not the only Pac-12 team nationally ranked by the NCAA: USC (8), Oregon (9) and Stanford (14).
The Sun Devils will have some time off before their next tournament at the Maui Jim Invitational Sept. 22 to 24.
Reach the reporter at sbemanue@asu.edu or follow @SebastianEman24 on Twitter.
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