ASU heads to Texas as the postseason quickly approaches

(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)

The penultimate event for Arizona State men’s golf head coach Matt Thurmond and his team will take the Sun Devils to Carrollton, Texas, after a disappointing outing last week for the top-10-ranked squad.

This week, No. 9 ASU will head to the Maridoe Invitational, which is hosted by North Texas at the Maridoe Golf Club from Mar. 30-31. The tournament follows the standard stroke-play collegiate format with 54 holes over three rounds.

Last week, the Sun Devils attended the Valspar Collegiate Invitational and had arguably their most disappointing finish of the year, finishing 14th and behind all of the other top-35 ranked squads in the 16-team field.

The Sun Devils traveled to the Maridoe Invitational last year, where they finished third, but still shot an unimpressive team score of 24-over par. They were also without top-ranked seniors from last year, Josele Ballester and Preston Summerhays, giving an opportunity to young guns who now have big roles on this year’s team.

The Sun Devils’ high finish, but also high score, highlights the fact that the field at the Maridoe Invitational was certainly not the strongest, something that carries over into this season. Only four of the 13-team field, including ASU, are ranked inside of this week’s Golf Coaches Association of America top-25.

The other ranked teams outside of ASU are No. 6 Oklahoma State, which it’ll be seeing a lot of at the upcoming Big 12 Championships, No. 14 Oklahoma and No. 17 Alabama.

Oklahoma State is led by two of the brightest young stars in collegiate golf with juniors Preston Stout and Ethan Fang, who are ranked No. 3 and No. 7, respectively, in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

The last two tournaments Oklahoma has participated in have been with ASU, where it finished fifth at the Arizona Thunderbird Intercollegiate and seventh at the Valspar Invitational. Alabama is coming off the back of a second-place finish at the Linger Longer Invitational, where they shot an impressive 27-under-par.

The Sun Devils will be without one of their three upperclassmen leaders, with junior Fifa Laopakdee beginning his preparation for the Masters in a few weeks. Because of that, ASU will be led by senior Michael Mjaaseth and junior Connor Williams.

Mjaaseth was out with an injury last week, but should be looking to return this week, while Williams shot 5-under-par to finish tied 27th.

Both did participate in this event last year, with Mjaaseth being the only one to shoot even-par for the tournament after signing for 3-over-par in his final round. Williams, on the other hand, had an abysmal showing last year, shooting 17-over-par and 9-over-par in his final round alone.

The other returner from the last edition is sophomore Peer Wernicke, who is competing as the individual this time around. He shot a 7-over-par last year and finished tied for 17th.

The other three spots in the Sun Devil lineup will be filled out once again by the impressive crop of freshmen. Leading the way will be the Spanish phenom Raul Gomez, who shot 1-over-par last week, but did have an impressive start with a 2-under-par Round 1.

The other two freshmen will be the American duo of Bowen Mauss and Boston Bracken. Last week, Mauss shot 1-under-par, but did have a good final round to take momentum from after shooting 2-under-par. Bracken did not participate last week and shot 6-over-par in his last appearance at the Arizona Thunderbird Intercollegiate earlier this month.

The Sun Devils are coming off a blown chance to earn first place at the Arizona Thunderbird Intercollegiate and their worst finish of the entire 2025-2026 season at the Valspar Invitational. With the top three spots of the ASU lineup locked into place for the upcoming postseason run, Thurmond will need to find the right combination of underclassmen in these last two tournaments to help the Sun Devils reach their ultimate goal of winning a national championship.