Deep, experienced Arizona State heads into men’s NCAA championship with momentum

The Sun Devils have a quasi-home event at the national championship after cruising to victory in regionals.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona State men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond can only hope his team didn’t peak a little too soon.

The Sun Devils cruised to victory in the NCAA Stockton Regional last week to earn a berth in the NCAA Championship, which starts Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club.

How good were the No. 5 Sun Devils? Well, Thurmond’s squad went 38-under as a team, winning by 10 strokes. They went 17-under in the third and final round alone with four individuals placing in the top 10.

The trick will be to replicate that feat against an even tougher field this week. Among those in the 30-team field are Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State and Pepperdine, the only teams ranked ahead of ASU in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.

“Usually you go into a tournament hoping you’re having two or three guys that can carry you,” Thurmond said. “We have had really good rounds before but for that one to come when we really needed it, third round of the regional. Everybody played very well.”

The top-five finishers in each of the six regions earned the right to play in the championship event. ASU is one of five representatives from the Pac-12, with the others being rival Arizona, Oregon, Stanford and Utah.

Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Men’s team | Men’s individual
More: What we want to see at the 2022 NCAA Championship

The ASU quintet will likely consist of grad student Mason Andersen, senior Cameron Sisk, junior David Puig and freshmen Preston Summerhays and Jose Luis Ballester. The team is so deep that junior Ryggs Johnston, who finished third individually at 5-under 275 in last year’s championship, won’t be in the starting lineup this time around.

Puig, Sisk and Andersen were part of last year’s ASU entry which advanced to the match play semifinal before losing to Oklahoma, which then lost the title match to Pepperdine. The Sun Devils had gone into match play as the top seed after finishing as the top team through the four rounds of stroke play.

Ballester, a native of Castellon, Spain, has been the team’s breakout star this spring. He was not in the starting lineup in the fall but Thurmond decided to give him a shot after he fared well in an individual event that was held the same time the Sun Devils team was playing in an event in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Ballester then chalked some solid showings with a fourth-place finish at in the Pac-12 tournament in Washington and a fifth-place finish at the regional event.

Andersen was the second-place individual overall at the regional with a three-day total of 10-under 206 that was just one stroke behind the medalist.

Puig made a triumphant return to the lineup in the regional after missing the previous two tournaments with a back injury. Senior James Leow played the first round but Thurmond substituted Puig for him in the second round and his No. 1 player responded with rounds of 69 and 67.

“I wanted (Puig) to be able to get a round or two in before this tournament,” Thurmond said. “I wasn’t sure how he’d do but felt like he needed to see where he was at and it was really great to see the way he performed.”

A lot is expected of ASU based on its finish at the national event a year ago, the results the Sun Devils managed this season as well as the fact they have a home course advantage, although the Raptor course at Grayhawk isn’t one they play daily.

Thurmond said his team isn’t putting too much pressure on itself to win, however.

“I don’t think you can go in thinking it’s win or bust. There are a lot of really good teams here and going in there thinking you have to win or it’s a failure is the surest way to ensure that you don’t win,” Thurmond said.

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