(Photo Courtesy – Hunter Hippel)
Author – Stryder Bigler
The Sun Devils hosted an individual tournament at the beautiful Papago Golf Course Sep. 18-19. The Par-71 course is located in Phoenix with breathtaking views, incredible greens, and top-of-the-line facilities. Many programs and talents brought their skills to Arizona for an amazing 2-day tournament. Arizona State brought three of their very own to the tournament; those included: Connor Williams, Nicholas Prieto, and the standout of this week Gabriel Salvanera. It is still summertime in the valley and the weather definitely still reflects that; both days of tournament play had temperatures that topped 106 and 102 respectively. But the Sun Devils were built for this heat and didn’t let that slow them down.
Connor Williams is the first of the Arizona State representatives, tying for 20th in the tournament. Williams scored 8-over par, his week was very up and down as the freshman started his tournament play with a 3-over par in round one. Then, in round two he played his best golf of the week shooting an incredible 2-under leaving him at a score of 1-over heading into the final round. But unfortunately, the momentum built by Williams would be for naught as he would post a score of 7-over in his final round of the tournament. Although Williams ended the week with a 4-way tie for spot number 20 on the leaderboard, the freshman from San Diego is an impressive player who will continue to progress and impress as his time at Arizona State wears on.
Freshman, Nicholas Prieto was another member of the 4-way tie for 20 with a score of 8-over as well. Prieto is another elite Freshman that ASU brought on this year; he and Williams will be formidable foes for opposing programs as their games mature. Prietos week didn’t start out as well as he would have hoped, scoring 5-over in the first round. However, he recovered with grace proving that he is a man with poise and the strength to not let this beautiful sport get the best of him when emotions may be running high. He posted a score of 2-over in the next round and cemented his week by scoring 1-over in the final round leaving Prieto with some good rounds to look back on.
Graduate student, Gabe Salvanera is the winner of this week’s tournament. Salvanera was ready going into this week of tournament play saying, “…I was playing good leading up, so I knew I had to just do my thing and it will speak for itself! Glory to God.” He was able to dominate, letting his game truly do the talking. Winning the competition and posting a final score of 12-under doubling the next closest score. The Sun Devil veteran was a commanding force for the Sun Devils as he was able to post a score of 7-under in the first round, terrifying the competition. It was an extremely impressive performance and he refused to slow down going into round two, he scored 5-under with another dominant showing. With the insurmountable lead he had already built, scoring even in the final round did no harm to his odds of winning this tournament. Coach Matt Thurmond added on to Salvanera’s comments about being locked in headed into the competition saying, “Gabe played with focus and purpose this week. Everytime you tee it up is a special opportunity to prove yourself and I just love seeing the way he competed from start to finish this week. Gabe is a great competitor”. It was an incredible weekend for an incredible golfer.
ASU showed their coaches and fans some promising developments at this invitational: an impressive showing by the two freshmen and an overpowering performance by the veteran. ASU will look for its freshmen to continue to build their confidence by getting their feet wet in tournaments and other pressure-inducing situations. They will also look for their solidified golfers to continue to post low scores. Salvanera ended the week by crediting all the hard work that went into the setup of the tournament saying, “Thanks to all the coaches and players for making the tournament possible!”
