(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
In a tournament full of rain, wind and cold, the Sun Devils from the desert did not shine.
Over the weekend, Arizona State participated in what some consider to be the most prestigious tournament of the fall college golf circuit, the East Lake Cup.
Hosted at the home of the PGA Tour Championship, the East Lake Cup consists of a one-day stroke play event to crown an individual champion and then a two-day match play event to determine a team champion, similar to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship.
The tournament consisted of four top-15 teams heading into the week with No. 1 Virginia, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 10 Florida, and No. 12 Ole Miss.
Notably, the Sun Devils were missing one of their top players for this clash of golf titans in junior Fifa Laopakdee, who won the Asia-Pacific Amateur in Dubai earlier in the week.
That left the Sun Devils to roll out a five-man lineup that included senior Michael Mjaaseth, junior Connor Williams, sophomore Peer Wernickie and freshmen Bowen Mauss and Boston Bracken.
During stroke play, ASU finished fourth with a team score of 1-over-par. The stroke play round was shortened from 18 holes to 9 holes after an extended rain delay.
Bracken led the way for ASU, shooting a 1-under-par, bogey-free round of 35. He was followed by Mauss and Williams, who shot even-par 36, and Mjaaseth and Wernickie, who shot 2-over-par 38.
This led to the Sun Devils being matched up against the top-ranked team in the country, Virginia, which is led by PGA Tour U No. 1 Ben James, in the 1 vs. 4 semifinal matchup.
ASU would be disposed of handily by the Cavaliers by a score of 3.5-1.5.
The only Sun Devil to win his match outright was Wernickie, who trailed most of the way before tying up the match on hole 16 and winning hole 18 to take a 1UP victory over Virginia junior Josh Duangmanee.
The other Sun Devil to gain any sort of points in the match against the Cavaliers was Williams, who had a 4UP lead over Virginia senior Bryan Lee before giving it all up by hole 16 and tying his match.
ASU was then paired up with Ole Miss in the third-place consolation match, where it would also be taken down by a score of 3.5-1.5.
Williams was the only player to win a full point for the Sun Devils after coming from behind against Ole Miss senior Cameron Tankersley to take the 1UP victory.
The other half point was won by Bracken, who tied fellow freshman Daniel Tolf for Ole Miss. He trailed most of the way before taking a 1UP lead heading into hole 18, which he subsequently lost, ending the match in a split.
The disappointing performance is the final event in an overall impressive fall season that saw ASU take home two team championships and one individual championship.
The Sun Devils will kick off their spring campaign at the Copper Cup hosted by UCLA on Jan. 19-20.
