Last spring’s NCAA Championship was held at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., less than 10 miles from the Tempe, Ariz. campus of Arizona State.
The Sun Devils felt very comfortable there, finishing first after four rounds of stroke-play qualifying for the eight-team match-play bracket that would produce a national champion.
Ryggs Johnston finished in third place in the individual standings, just two shots behind Clemson’s Turk Pettit, the individual NCAA champion. Cameron Sisk was one of the four players who landed in a tie for eighth place. Arizona State fell short of its ultimate goal, dropping a 3-2 decision to the NCAA runnerup Oklahoma in the semifinals.
The NCAA Championship will return to Grayhawk this spring and Arizona State looks like it plans to take that short ride from its campus and make some noise as the Sun Devils seek to win their third national title.
The wraparound 2021-2022 college golf season resumed this week with a couple of tournaments out West and Arizona State, with four of the five players who represented the Sun Devils in match play against Oklahoma in the NCAA semifinals in the lineup, claimed an impressive 13-shot victory over the team that hoisted the trophy at Grayhawk last May, Pepperdine, in the Southwest Invitational, always a key early spring barometer on the Division I scene which wrapped up Wednesday at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif.
Arizona State, No. 3 in the Golfstat rankings during the midseason pause in the 2021-’22 season, climbed to the top of the leaderboard with a sparkling 13-under 275 total in Tuesday’s second round and kept the pedal to the metal with a final round of 12-under 276 for a tournament record 30-under 834 total. It was the Sun Devils’ ninth Southwestern Invitational team title, but their first since 2001.
The Sun Devils, out of the Pac-12, had opened with a 5-under 283 in Monday’s first round that left them four shots behind pace-setting Georgia, which opened with an 8-under 279. The Bulldogs, ranked 13th, are out of the tremendously deep Southeastern Conference.
Arizona State was led by David Puig, a junior from Spain and No. 6 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) who became the first repeat winner and fourth two-time individual champion in the Southwestern’s history.
Puig was seven shots out of the lead going into the final round after adding a 2-under 70 to his opening-round 73. But he ripped off a spectacular final round of 7-under 65 over the 6,992-yard, par-72 North Ranch layout for an 8-under 208 total that was two shots clear of teammate Sisk, a senior from San Diego and No. 36 in the WAGR, and Wake Forest’s Michael Brennan, a sophomore from Leesburg, Va. and No. 28 in the WAGR.
Puig was really aggressive in the final round, recording eight birdies and an eagle at the par-5 12th hole to offset three bogeys. Heck, the guy only had six pars on his scorecard.
Puig was the hottest player in college golf at this time a year ago as he added another individual victory in The Amer Ari Invitational in Hawaii shortly after his victory in the Southwestern.
It was a different dynamic for the Sun Devils early in 2021 as the Pac-12 had kept them off the golf course with the coronavirus pandemic still raging in the fall of 2020. Arizona State clearly couldn’t wait to start competing again for the first time since the advent of the pandemic halted the 2019-’20 season for good in mid-March.
Pepperdine had been No. 1 in the Golfstat rankings when the curtain suddenly dropped on the 2019-’20 season, the Waves never getting a chance to compete for a national championship. To their everlasting credit, the Waves got the NCAA crown they thought they were headed for a year earlier in last May’s NCAA Championship at Grayhawk as they knocked off Oklahoma, 3-2, in the Final Match.
Ranked No. 7 heading into the Southwestern, Pepperdine, a perennial West Coast Conference power, showed it will be a force to be reckoned with again this spring as the Waves earned runnerup honors with a 7-under 847 total.
The host team for the Southwestern, Pepperdine opened with a 1-under 287 and added an 11-under 277 that left the Waves six shots behind Arizona State going into the final round. Pepperdine closed with a solid 5-under 283.
It was nine shots back to another Pac-12 entry, No. 21 Washington, in third place as the Huskies finished with an 8-under 856 total. After opening with a 289, Washington posted an 8-under 280 in Tuesday’s second round before finishing up with a 1-under 287.
No. 13 Georgia backed off from its fast start as the Bulldogs added an even-par 288 to their opening-round 277 before closing with an 8-over 296 that left them seven shots behind Washington in fourth place with a 1-under 863 total.
Georgia advanced to last spring’s NCAA Championship with a runnerup finish in the Tallahassee Regional, but the Bulldogs never really got it going at Grayhawk.
Atlantic Coast Conference power Wake Forest, ranked 14th, made a cross-country trip to tee it up in the Southwestern and finished six shots behind Georgia in fifth place with a 5-over 869 total. The Demon Deacons bounced back from an opening-round 295 by matching par in the second round with a 288 before closing with a 2-under 286.
Wake Forest advanced to Grayhawk last spring with a third-place finish as the top seed in the Cle Elum Regional. The Demon Deacons had a real shot for a spot in match play in the NCAA Championship, but faltered in the final round of qualifying at Grayhawk.
San Diego State, the defending team champion in the Southwestern, finished two shots behind Wake Forest in sixth place in the tough 12-team field with a 7-over 871 total. The Aztecs, out of the Mountain West Conference, were consistent at North Ranch, closing with a 3-over 291 after posting back-to-back 2-over 290s in the first two rounds.
San Diego State earned a trip to Grayhawk last spring with a third-place finish as a five seed in the Kingston Springs Regional.
Sisk backed up Puig for Arizona State as he contributed a 5-under 67 to the Sun Devils’ second-round surge after he had opened with a 71. Sisk matched par in the final round with a 72 to get his share of second place with Wake Forest’s Brennan at 6-under 210.
Preston Summerhays, a freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz. and a member of the golfing Summerhays family, is a really nice addition to the Arizona State lineup. He finished in a tie for sixth place with a 4-under 212 total. After struggling a little in the opening round with a 74, Summerhays, No. 86 in the WAGR, bounced back with a 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s second round before finishing up with a 2-under 70.
Summerhays was an impressive winner of the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
Mason Anderson, a graduate student from Chandler, Ariz. and No. 83 in the WAGR, gave Arizona State a fourth top-10 finisher as he finished among a trio of players tied for 10th place at 2-under 214. Anderson struggled in Tuesday’s second round with a 76, but posted a pair of solid 3-under 69s in the first and final rounds.
Rounding out the Arizona State lineup was Johnston, a junior from Libby, Mont. and No. 47 in the WAGR who finished among the group tied for 34th place with a 7-over 223 total. Johnston struggled in the final round with an 83 after posting a pair of counting 2-under 70s in the first two rounds.
That’s a lineup that boasts five players inside the top 86 in the WAGR. The Sun Devils are going to be tough playing close to home if they can book a return trip to Grayhawk this spring.
Wake Forest’s Brennan was the picture of consistency with three straight 2-under 70s that gave him a share of second place with Sisk at 6-under 210.
Leading the way for Pepperdine was Derek Hitchner, a senior from Minneapolis, Minn. and No. 78 in the WAGR who shared fourth place with Texas’ Travis Vick, a junior from Houston and No. 43 in the WAGR, each landing on 5-under 211. After opening with a 71, Hitchner recorded back-to-back 2-under 70s in the final two rounds.
It was a disappointing week for Big 12 power Texas as the No. 8 Longhorns finished in eighth place with a 22-over 886 total, but they were playing without the Coody twins, Pierceson, No. 2 in the WAGR, and Parker, No. 71 in the WAGR.
But it was a solid showing for Vick, who entered the final round just a shot out of the lead after he added a 5-under 67 to his opening-round 70 before falling back a little in the final round with a 74. Vick made a nice run to the semifinals in last summer’s U.S. Amateur at one of America’s most iconic golf courses, Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh.
Sharing sixth place with Arizona State’s Summerhays at 4-under was Pepperdine’s Dylan Menante, a junior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 17 in the WAGR. After struggling to an opening-round 77, Menante ripped off rounds of 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s second round and a sparkling 5-under 67 in Wednesday’s final round.
A couple of Pac-12 players, UCLA’s Eddy Lai, a graduate student from San Jose, Calif., and Washington’s Teddy Lin, a sophomore from Taiwan, finished in a tie for eighth place, each landing on 3-under 213.
Lai matched par in the opening round with a 72 and got better each day, adding a 71 in Tuesday’s second round before closing with a 2-under 70. Lin added a 3-under 69 to his opening-round 70, but struggled a little in the final round with a 74.
Joining Arizona State’s Anderson in the trio tied for 10th place at 2-under 214 were Pepperdine’s Joe Highsmith, a senior from Lakewood, Wash. and No. 11 in the WAGR, and Georgia’s Trent Phillips, a senior from Inman, S.C. and No. 12 in the WAGR.
Highsmith, a huge factor in the Waves’ run to the national championship last spring, sandwiched a 72 in Tuesday’s second round with a pair of 1-under 71s.
Phillips had opened with a sparkling 6-under 66, easily the best score of Monday’s first round, and had a share of the individual lead going into the final round after adding a solid 2-under 70 in Tuesday’s second round. Phillips struggled to a 78 in the final round, but still earned a top-19 finish.
Arizona State’s cross-state rival Arizona, ranked 34th by Golfstat, edged No. 37 New Mexico by a shot to claim the team title in the Arizona Intercollegiate, which wrapped up Tuesday, for the fifth straight year. The Wildcats, who bested Arizona State to claim the team crown in last spring’s Pac-12 Championship, hosted the Arizona Intercollegiate at Tucson Country Club.
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