(Photo Courtesy – Stryder Bigler)
Arizona State defended their home turf in the opening rounds of the Thunderbird Collegiate April 12. The Sun Devils finished -23 which is 13 strokes better than University of Arizona which finished second on the day. Junior Preston Summerhays was the star of the opening two rounds. He finished the first round four under and did not stop there hitting five under in the second round.
His score of nine under puts him at the top of the leaderboard, he won the Thunderbird last year and is well on pace to do so again. Summerhays looks to become the first Arizona State golfer since John Rahm to win the individual title in consecutive years.
Summerhays was followed closely behind by freshman phenom Wenyi Ding and sophomore Michale Mjaaseth who both scored six under through the first day. Those scores put three Arizona State Golfers in the top 2 scores of the tournament.
Jose Luis Ballester also performed well finishing tied for 11 with a score of three under. Nicholas Prieto finished even through the first day tied for 25. Connor Williams tied for 41 with a score of two over. Kiko Coelho finished tied for 70 with a score of five over
As a team, the Sun Devils played flawlessly in every facet of the game. They finished with the best average score on par threes averaging just 3.10 strokes. They excelled at par fours and finished eight under the next closest team with an average of 3.93.
They also finished a tournament leading -17 on par fives with an average score of 4.43. Arizona State led the tournament in birdies with 41 and eagles with 3. Head coach Matt Thurmond really loved all the boys did to prepare for this tournament.
With the Sun Devil’s playing on their home turf their long hours studying the course and walking through every situation possible benefited them greatly.
“I think the team has prepared really well the last couple of weeks,” Thurmond said. “The guys have really done everything you could ask to prepare.
The Sun Devils will look to hold onto their lead heading into the last 18 holes and win back-to-back Thunderbird Collegiate’s for the first time since 2017-18.
