Notebook: ASU men’s golf fall 2024 recap

(Photo: Ben Parris/Sun Devil Athletics)

After losing a couple of key players in the offseason, the fall season for Arizona State Men’s Golf was a successful campaign as the Sun Devils finished in the top five or better in all of their autumn contests.

ASU started the season with a victory at the Sahalee Players Championship winning by 11 strokes and was the only team to shoot under-par. The Sun Devils finished inside the top three in par-3, par-4, and par-5 scoring for the week.

To add to the one win, ASU earned two runner-up finishes at the Fighting Illini Invitational and The Williams Cup. They lost by one stroke and had the 36-hole lead in both events.

Arizona State clinched bronze in their inaugural Big 12 event after defeating Kansas in the third-place match at the Big 12 Match Play. BYU won the first edition of the event with the revamped conference, which was played at The Club at Houston Oaks.

The Sun Devils were without senior Josele Ballester in their only finish outside the top three but still finished in 5th place at the Ben Hogan Collegiate in Fort Worth, Texas.

Josele Ballester:

Ballester came out the gate playing some of the best golf of his collegiate career. Finishing with his first-ever win at the Fighting Illini Invitational just a week after finishing second at the Sahalee Player Championship gave him his highest PGA Tour University ranking of the season, sitting at No. 2. He concluded his fall season earning a top-five finish in every tournament he played with a fifth-place finish at the Williams Cup. He did not participate in the Ben Hogan Collegiate due to playing in a DP World Tour event that week.

The senior had the most successful fall season of his career and will look to build into a stronger spring season and take the top spot on the PGA Tour University rankings.

Preston Summerhays:

The highly touted Scottsdale native, Preston looked to dominate in his final year of eligibility at Arizona State. The fall season started off well and it looked to be smooth sailing from there on out. He finished tied for second at Sahalee as it looked like he was rightly ranked at the top of the PGA Tour University rankings. From there he failed to secure a top-10 finish for the rest of the season. At the Fighting Illini Invitational, he had his worst finish of the season at T44. He improved from there finishing T25 at the Ben Hogan Collegiate and then T12 at The Williams Cup.

Summerhays will look to improve on his fall season and continue to contribute high placements for his squad.

Connor Williams:

Connor Williams took a step up in his sophomore season with three top-10 finishes capping off the season with a second-place finish at The Williams Cup, the best result of his collegiate career. To start the season, he put up a sixth-place finish at the Sahalee Players Championship and in the absence of Ballester put up another strong finish at the Ben Hogan Collegiate at eighth. His weakest event was the Fighting Illini Invitational, but the Sun Devils were ultimately able to overcome his finish in 17th en route to second place.

Williams has taken the jump that the Sun Devils have needed from him and consistent top-10 finishes could go a long way for the Sun Devils in 2025.

Peer Wernicke:

In his freshman season out of Leverkusen, Germany, Peer Wernicke has steadily contributed top-15 finishes for the Sun Devils. In the Fighting Illini Invitational, he placed T11 and matched that performance at the Ben Hogan Collegiate. His first collegiate tournament at Arizona State was the Sahalee Players Championship in which he finished T13. The worst tournament for Wernicke came in the last matchup of the season but was still T24 in The Willians Cup.

Wernicke, the newcomer to this team has been largely successful and has had his score count toward the team total in every tournament he has played in.

Nick Preito:

The sophomore Nick Preito has struggled to score for the Sun Devils, counting in just three of five appearances. At the Fighting Illini, he shot 3-over to place fifth on Arizona State, and at the Ben Hogan T55 was enough for Preito’s score to count for the Sun Devils. Sahalee was his best outing, finishing T19. He finished T51 to cap off the fall season at the Williams Cup.

Michael Mjaaseth:

Michael Mjaaseth, the junior from Oslo, Norway, had a quiet start to the season. After placing T46 at the Sahalee, Mjaaseth did not play at the Fighting Illini. He got another shot at the Ben Hogan in which he placed 34th and followed that up with his best performance of the season at The Williams Cup placing T19.

Fifa Loapakdee:

Fifa Loapakdee, a sophomore from Ryong, Thailand did not see the course much through the fall season. He had his one appearance at the Williams Cup alongside the rest of the Arizona State roster and finished 58 in the tournament. Loapakdee did play in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in October in Japan, where he finished T26 shooting 3-over. Former Sun Devil golfer Wenyi Ding was the star at the tournament, narrowly winning with a score of 12-under.

Welcome to the Big 12:

In its first-ever Big 12 Match Play, Arizona State placed third, reminding the conference that it is ready to compete for a Big 12 title this season. ASU fell behind BYU and Baylor but beat Kansas to lock in third place. Mjaaseth and Ballester had the best records through the tournament, both finishing 3-1-0. Wernicke did well in his first-ever match play as a collegiate golfer going 2-1-1. Summerhays split his matchups going 2-2-0. Williams and Prieto finished with a losing record, Williams with 1-2-0 and Prieto 0-1-0.

Onto Spring:

From February 6–8, Arizona State will gradually ramp up its spring season in the Amer Ari Invitational in Puako, Hl. Former ASU golfer Wenyi Ding broke multiple records with his performance last year in Hawaii. Ding put up a score of 27-under with rounds of 63-64-62. It was the lowest 54-hole tournament score in college golf history, beating out Jon Rahm’s 21-under at the 2014 ASU Thunderbird Invitational. The team as a whole finished 63-under which was their best three-round tournament score in program history.

After the one tournament in February, the maroon and gold will then play four tournaments in March: Cabo Collegiate, Pauma Valley Invitational, Valspar Invitational, and Maridoe Invitational.

The Pauma Valley Invitational and Maridoe Invitational are newbies on the ASU Men’s Golf schedule. Cabo Collegiate and Valspar Invitational are both returners from last season’s schedule.

The Sun Devils won across the border in Mexico last spring at the Cabo Collegiate. They won by nine strokes and Summerhays placed solo-third.

The Valspar Invitational was a narrow third-place finish for ASU in 2024. Three players finished in the top 10, Williams being the only one who is currently on the team.

Arizona State will round out its regular season with its annually hosted ASU Thunderbird Collegiate on April 11th. Held at Papago Golf Course in Phoenix, the Sun Devils and Summerhays will look to take home the trophy for the third year in a row. Summerhays will try to become the first Sun Devil golfer to win it three years in a row since Rahm in 2014-2016.

ASU will try to secure the conference title once more in uncharted territory after taking home the PAC-12 title the previous spring before exiting the conference. Southern Hills Country Club, the site of the 2022 PGA Championship, will host the Big 12 Championship from April 22–24.

Following a disappointing ending to their 2023-24 season in the NCAA Regionals, Coach Thurmond’s squad will have their eyes set on the NCAA Regionals in May, to try and qualify for the NCAA Championship.

Sun Devil Golf News:

Sun Devil alums Ryggs Johnston (Class of 2024) and Niklas Lemke (Class of 2007) earned their DP World Tour cards in Spain through Q School on November 14.

Coach Thurmond signed two new prospects, Kent Karlstrom and Bowen Mauss on Wednesday’s National Signing Day.

Karlstrom attends Arizona Prep Academy and notably won the AJGA HV3 Foundation Junior Championship.

“The guy is an absolute golf junky,” said Thurmond. “His good energy, kindness, warmth, and his love of the game they all just pour out of him and we’re so excited to have Kent here.”

Mauss walks into Tempe with an illustrious resume coming from Draper, Utah. He’s ranked at No. 8 in the 2025 class of the Junior Golf Scoreboard. Notably, Mauss reached the Sweet Sixteen in the 2023 U.S. Amateur as a 16-year-old and most recently played in the Black Desert Championship on the PGA Tour.

“What really stood out was this intensity, ferocity, and will to win that [Mauss] has,” said Thurmond “I haven’t seen anything like it since watching Jon Rahm play. Bowen wants to win”