(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
With the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament taking place at the MGM Grand, many ASU students were in Las Vegas to take in all the action that surrounds a week in Sin City.
That group of students in Las Vegas includes the ASU men’s golf team, which finished the Southern Highland Collegiate Masters Wednesday. The Masters is one of the toughest and most well represented tournaments that the Sun Devils will see this season, boasting five of the of the top-10 teams in the nation including No.1 Illinois and No. 6 Southern California.
Days after after ASU senior Jon Rahm received the Mark H. McCormick Medal for his position as the No. 1 ranked ranked armature in the world, he played like usual Rahm in his first round in Las Vegas. He opened his tournament with a three under 69 with an eagle on the par-5 9th hole. Rahm’s first day 69 put him in a three-way tie for the lead heading into the second day.
Rahm wasn’t the only ASU player high on the leaderboard after day one, as fellow senior Alberto Sanchez opened his tournament with a two-under 70 to put himself in a tie for fourth place, sitting just one shot shy of the lead.
At the conclusion of the first day of play, ASU sat in first place with a score of +3, one stroke ahead of a plethora of teams, the likes of which included Illinois, Southern California, Southern Methodist and Oklahoma State.
On the second day of the tournament, the Sun Devils improved upon their first round score, shooting an even par score of 288 on day two.
Rahm followed his first-round score of 69 with a day two score of 69, still tied for the lead, now sitting at six under with USC’s Sean Crocker.
ASU junior Jared du Toit made a push up the leaderboard with a second-round score of 71, placing him in a tie for 21st heading to the final day.
Yet even with the improvement in score, ASU found itself trailing Pac-12 rival USC by seven strokes. USC produced an astounding day-two score of 280 (-8), now in first with a two-day total of 572.
Day three was easily the most demanding of the tournament with most of the field finding it hard to make it into red numbers (under par). At the end of the day, only six players in the field of 78 posted scores under par.
The University of Oregon had the honor of being the only team to post a sub par final day score (-1).
ASU shot a team score of fifteen over (+15) on the final day, falling from second into a tie for fourth place.
Rahm posted a score 78 on the final day fell from first into a tie for fifth. His 78 was an aftermath of five bogies and a triple bogey six on the par three 12th hole to the tune of only two birdies.
Du Toit was the next closest Sun Devil player, finishing T19 with a three-day score of 221.
The Pac-12 had a good showing, with ASU’s fourth place finish and USC taking the tournament with a score of 869 over the three day period.
Next for ASU is the Lamkin San Diego Classic March 14-16, on the greens at San Diego Country Club.
