(Photo Courtesy – Stryder Bigler)
National title contender Arizona State has been on a roll to begin the 2024 march to the NCAA Championships and will continue the trek Sunday in Las Vegas for the Southern Highlands Collegiate.
ASU will step into Vegas red hot after back-to-back top three finishes in its last two tournaments.
To close out January, the Sun Devils finished third in a field of 18 teams in the National Invitational in Tucson.
After three rounds of constant fluctuation at the top of the leaderboard, New Mexico took home the gold after shooting 51-under as a team, finishing just one stroke ahead of second place Arizona and two strokes ahead of ASU.
Tucson was the weekend that standout freshman Wenyi Ding first burst onto the scene, as he shot 17-under and finished second individually in his first collegiate start.
But that was just the beginning for Ding.
The impressive freshman from China took his game to another level in ASU’s next tournament, the Amer Ari Invitational in Waimea, Hawaii.
Stealing the show, Ding shot a whopping 27-under to take home the individual championship and became the first collegiate golfer to score sub-190 in a 54 hole tournament.
The history doesn’t end there, however. Ding also is the first collegiate golfer to ever shoot under 200 in each of his first two tournaments.
His incredible two-week stretch put him in company with Jon Rahm as the only Arizona State golfers to ever shoot 16-under in back-to-back tournaments and earned him Pac-12 Golfer of the Week honors two weeks in a row.
Behind Ding’s monstrous performance, the Sun Devils (-63) left Hawaii with a second place finish out of 20 teams.
Only North Carolina (-68) topped ASU, the maroon and gold were able to top the likes of Auburn, Florida State, UCLA and Stanford.
Along with Ding, ASU has gotten strong contributions across the board in 2024.
Junior Josele Ballester shot a combined 23-under in the past two tournaments and junior Preston Summer shot 20-under over that span.
The Sun Devils take their momentum into Vegas to face some familiar foes from across the nation, including North Carolina and UNLV.
The tournament will be a stroke play format with four of the best five scores from each day counting towards the team’s overall score.
ASU’s five-swinger lineup is up in the air, as it has been different each of the past two events.
The four guys that were in the lineup each of the last two times out, however, inclue Ding, Summerhays, Ballester and freshman Connor Williams.
Sophomore Michael Mjaaseth, sophomore Luke Potter and graduate student Ryggs Johnston are the other guys who tee’d it up in one of the past two tournaments and could get the start Sunday.
The event will span Feb. 25-27 and be played at Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas.
The par 72, 7,537 yard course was built in 2000 and is a part of an exclusive private club.
With just four tournaments remaining before the Pac-12 Championships, ASU will look to stay hot and continue to find their groove heading down the stretch.
And, of course, all eyes will be on Wenyi Ding as he looks to continue his reign of dominance and lead the Sun Devils to a win in Sin City.
