Men's Golf Spring Season Preview
Following a runner-up finish at the 2022 NCAA Championships, the Arizona State men's golf team spent the summer retooling for a postseason run aimed at the top step.
The Sun Devils roster of seven features two seniors and five underclassmen. Four of the five scorers from last year's championship lineup have given way to a youth movement.
Despite the turnover, Arizona State had a fall calendar filled with elite competition, high finishes and low scoring cards. Depth has proven evident, as the Sun Devils used a different combination of its five scorers in three of the four fall tournaments.
Following a fall slate that saw ASU match up against the best in the nation, head coach Matt Thurmond feels that this squad is ready to compete with the best.
"Sometimes you think depth is numbers but depth is really the strength of the ones you have," coach Thurmond said. "To win a national championship, you have five points each match and they're all equal. Having five guys that are really strong any time we tee it up is massive.
In their four fall tournaments, the Sun Devils never finished lower than fourth. ASU's Maui Jim Intercollegiate performance resulted in a program record 40-under par for a tournament including 23-under 257 in the second round, eventually finishing second.
Michael Mjaaseth also tied for the win in the individual tournament at 14-under in his first collegiate appearance.
They followed that up with a fourth place finish at the Fighting Illini Invitational. Ryggs Johnston carded a six-under 64 in the second round. It was the second best round in the 16-year history of the tournament, only bested by one stroke from PGA Tour Professionals Rickie Fowler and Thomas Gentry.
"It was a good fall season for me," Johnston said. "It was nice to get started right off the bat. I played a good preseason and then started out with two really good tournaments. Probably the high point would be the Fighting Illini. It was pretty fun to be in the mix there and have a chance to win that at the end."
The opportunity to win proved a common mentality for Arizona State.
A third place finish at the Colonial Collegiate gave way to the East Lake Cup. The tournament hosted the top four teams from last year's NCAA Championship. Freshman Luke Potter finished second overall in stroke play and ASU won the team competition. They followed it up with a win against Pepperdine before falling to Vanderbilt in the championship.
"The East Lake Cup was my favorite tournament this fall," Potter said. "It was my best tournament and to be in front of the cameras with your team, playing well and having the match-play setting very much like the NCAA Championship is fun to go and cheer your boys on. Doing it at a stage like that was fun."
After his second place finish, Potter went and won two consecutive matches against a former tournament champion and a Preseason All-American from Pepperdine and Vanderbilt, respectively.
"The more pressure Luke is under, the more he likes to succeed," associate head coach Thomas Sutton said. "It almost takes a little bit of pressure to get the best out of Luke. It's becoming apparent that with every time he has a big putt, it seems to fall."
For all of Potters' success, loud and boisterous putts will not be the formula for Sun Devil success in the spring. The squad that Coach Thurmond has assembled is calm, poised and confident in their abilities.
"The personality type of this group, except for maybe Luke, are guys that if they were in a boxing match, would not come out and throw haymakers in the first round," Thurmond said. "They're passive guys in any way you profile them from their personalities to behaviors. They let things come to them; they don't take the fight to the enemy and then they adjust and do what they need to do."
Coach Thurmond and his staff will carry that company into seven tournaments, including trips to Florida, Mexico and hosting the Thunderbird Collegiate, before the Pac-12 Championship at Stanford and the ensuing postseason.
The Sun Devil slate also includes trips to Hawaii and Cabo against elite competition, as well opening at the Southwestern Invitational where ASU hoisted the team trophy last season.
As a returner, Johnston has seen the natural evaluation of the men's golf program over the summer. Despite the difference, he believes this ASU team has what it takes to make a deep playoff run.
"It was a big change [from last year] but it's been really great," Johnston said. "We're a small team and we're all really close. As the fall has gone on, we have all gotten closer and closer and we do well together as a team. We've embraced the small team aspect of it."
Before they head to California, a break from competition is underway in the winter season. The Sun Devils tee off at the Southwestern Invitational to open their 2023 spring season on Jan. 30.
"This was a young team with just a lot of new faces," coach Thurmond said. "We lost a lot of star power and we needed to prove to ourselves that we could do it. We know we're good players but we needed to prove to ourselves that we could do it in the fall. Each week that passed, I felt like we got a little more confidence that we're for real and we're still pretty good.