Both ASU men’s and women’s golf tee off this week as the postseason nears

(Photo: Thomas Fernandez/Sun Devil Athletics)

Both men’s and women’s golf head coaches, Matt Thurmond and Missy Farr-Kaye, will have their teams tee it up this upcoming week as the regular season slowly comes to a close.

The No. 8 men’s golf team will participate in the Valspar Collegiate Invitational at Floridian National Golf Club in Palm City, Florida, from Mar. 23-24, while the women’s team will try to protect its home course advantage in the PING ASU at Popago Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona, from Mar. 23-25.

Both tournaments will be three-round events using the standard stroke-play collegiate format, but the men will play their first two rounds back-to-back on Monday and have a shotgun start for all three rounds, similar to the Dr. Donnis Invitational that the women’s team participated in last week.

On the men’s side of things, ASU will enter a highly competitive 16-team field with 13 of the teams ranked inside the SCOREBOARD top-35 teams in the country. This is highlighted by No. 1 Auburn, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 13 Pepperdine and No. 14 Oklahoma.

Auburn is coming off a win at the Hayt Classic, while Arkansas got a win at the All-American Intercollegiate. Both teams are led by superstars in junior Jackson Koivun and senior John Daly II, respectively, and have both found success on the PGA Tour before.

As for Texas, they have one of the deepest and most experienced teams in the country, boasting three players in the top 10 of the PGA Tour University Rankings with seniors Christian Maas, Tommy Morrison and former Sun Devil Luke Potter.

For the Sun Devils, they will send out their core three of upperclassmen with senior Michael Mjaaseth, who ranks inside the top 10 of the PGA Tour University Rankings himself, along with juniors Connor Williams and Fifa Laopakdee.

Laopakdee and Williams are both coming off top 20 finishes at the Arizona Thunderbird Collegiate, shooting 6-under-par and 3-under-par, respectively, while Mjaaseth shot slightly worse at 2-under-par and finished tied for 21st.

The rest of the Sun Devil lineup will be filled with all freshmen, many of whom have enjoyed very impressive rookie campaigns.

This week’s lineup will include the American Bowen Mauss, the Spaniard Raul Gomez, and the South African Bryan Newman, who will compete as an individual this week. All three shot under-par at the Arizona Thunderbird Collegiate, with Gomez being the standout performer, shooting 5-under-par and a low round of 66 for the event.

This will be the start of the final stretch of the season for the men’s team, as it’ll play its final three tournaments of the regular season in the next 20 days. After the Valspar Collegiate Invitational, it’ll play in the Maridoe Invitational hosted by North Texas and then come home for its final tournament of the year with the Thunderbird Collegiate.

On the women’s side, No. 22 ASU will be in a much weaker field than its men’s counterpart, with only five of the 16-team field inside the most recent Women’s Golf Coaches Association top 25 rankings.

The headliners that the Sun Devils will be up against are once again No. 2 Southern California, followed by No. 14 UCLA, No. 20 Northwestern and No. 24 Baylor. USC is coming off three straight team tournament victories dating back to February, including topping the Sun Devils most recently at the Dr. Donnis Invitational, where ASU placed second.

The Sun Devils will roll out the same six-player lineup that they have been almost every tournament this spring, which notably still excludes star redshirt sophomore Patience Rhodes, who is still recovering from a leg injury.

They will be led out by seniors Paula Schulz-Hanssen and Beth Coulter, both of whom are coming off solid performances at the Dr. Donnis Invitational, shooting 4-under-par for Schulz-Hanssen with a final round of 6-under-par and even-par for the event for Coulter.

They will be followed by sophomore Isla McDonald-O’Brien alongside three freshmen, Johanna Axelsen, Pimpisa Rubrong and Kate Dillon, who will participate as the individual for this event.

Rubrong was the standout of the bunch from last week, posting a 3-under-par for the tournament, which was followed by disappointing outings from the rest, with the next best score being 7-over-par for McDonald O’Brien.

This will be the women’s last chance to get right before heading to the Big 12 Championship at the Dallas Athletic Club on Apr. 23-25, which will be followed by the NCAA Regionals and Nationals.