(Photo Credit: Ben Parris/WCSN)
Arizona State faced an uphill battle heading into the final day of the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tennessee, taking on a packed slate that featured four top-12 squads.
ASU started the tournament slowly finishing in eighth on the first day of play with a team score of 7-under. Then the team had another underwhelming round on day two, staying stuck in eighth. Going into the final round the Sun Devils were able to salvage the poor start and leap to fifth on the leaderboard with a score of 20-under.
The Sun Devils finished behind Texas, South Carolina, Northwestern and Arizona. Arizona State entered the week ranked No. 14 in the nation and only trailed schools that ranked higher.
Arizona State’s star in this young season has been redshirt sophomore Patience Rhodes as she has taken a leap in play from her freshman season. Rhodes finished the week with a 10-under score and finished fifth on the overall leaderboard. To put in perspective Rhodes’ hot start, she has three top-10 finishes in her career and two of them have come in the first two contests of this season.
Rhodes rode a hot start in the first two rounds of the tournament firing a 4-under round of 68 on day-one followed by a 5-under 67 on day two. She wrapped up the event with a 1-under 71 while the rest of the team was able to bounce back and lift the team to the fifth place finish.
Junior Paula Schulz-Hanssen finished in a tie for 16th on the leaderboard. She shot 70 in round one putting her 2-under then lost a few shots in round two after shooting 73. She shined in the latter round of the tournament scoring 67 on the final day to help hammer home Arizona State’s strong finish.
Junior Beth Coulter followed Schulz-Hanssen and matched her in the first round with a score of 70. After a second round 75, Coulter bounced back in the third-round with a score of 71, matching Rhodes’ third round. She finished the week T32 at even-par.
Senior Grace Summerhays (+1, T38) and Freshman Isla McDonald-O’Brien (+2, T42) rounded out the event for the Sun Devils and made progress by not losing any shots round-over-round.
Summerhays has started the season slowly finishing +9 in the ANNIKA Invitational but showed improvement in this tournament. Meanwhile, McDonald-O’Brien cut eight strokes between her first round 76 and final round 68, showing promising improvement for the freshman who played in just her second collegiate event.
“We played really well today,” Coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. “Another very good finish for Patience. Isla did a great job learning and getting better everyday. There are so many good things we are seeing from everyone on our team. We beat several very good teams and the strength of the field was quite good. We are headed home to get some rest and will be ready to take on the Windy City next weekend.”
Arizona State Heads to the Windy City Collegiate September 30-October 1. In 2023 ASU finished 10th in the tournament.
