Sun Devils record second straight second-place finish at the Thunderbird Collegiate

(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)

TEMPE – Arizona State men’s golf came up short of their mark to retain the Thunderbird Collegiate title for the fourth consecutive year, despite both junior Connor Williams and freshman Boston Bracken posting top-5 finishes.

ASU shot a team score of 28-under-par at their home course of Papago Golf Club to place second in the nine-team field behind New Mexico in the three-round, two-day event, which took place April 10-11.

Day One

Entering the final tournament of the season before conference championships, ASU looked to be the heavy favorites on home turf. That notion stayed true through the first round of play, but the Sun Devils struggled to gain traction beyond it.

Freshman Boston Bracken led the way, finishing the first 18-holes of the day at seven under par and on top of the leaderboard. The Utah native hadn’t had a lot of success throughout the season, but with last year’s tournament champion, junior Fifa Laopakdee, competing at The Masters, a door opened for other names to step up.

“I was hitting it pretty solid,” Bracken said. “Just not hitting it close enough to make birdies. I made one birdie and a couple pars the first nine holes, and then on hole 12, I made a pretty big putt from about 10 or 15 feet for birdie. Then I made a lot more birdies coming down the stretch. It was pretty nice going into the second nine.”

Bracken went on a tear, birding six out of his final seven holes to close out the first half of the day with a one-shot lead, helping the Sun Devils to a two-shot lead heading into the afternoon.

Despite Bracken leading the way after the opening 18 holes, the rest of his team struggled to find consistent play.

Bracken struggled in the second round, firing one-over-par with five bogeys on his scorecard, moving him out of the leaderboard’s top spot.

Junior Connor Williams started his weekend by pouring in birdies on holes three, four and five, but was also unable to maintain that pace. Williams finished the round with three more birdies and a pair of bogies for a score of four-under.

Williams was able to scramble efficiently in his second 18 holes, firing two-under-par despite double-bogeying the par four 12th hole.

“I think today I had to scramble a bit more than I liked,” Williams said. “The short game was pretty good. Missed a couple putts on that second 18, not too bad.”

Freshman Raul Gomez also looked to be trending in the right direction early in the weekend as he sat with the leaders at five-under-par through 13 holes, but after entering the clubhouse with a bogey on 17, he continued to stumble as he went on to shoot a four-over-par 75 in the second round, pushing him out of contention.

The second round slip was not just a trend for a handful of players; it was the trend for the entire team. ASU shot two-under-par, which was the sixth lowest score out of nine teams for the day.

The afternoon struggles put the Sun Devils six shots behind New Mexico, which led the tournament after 36 holes, giving them a lot of ground to make up entering the final day.

“We made the turn pretty well,” associate head coach Thomas Sutton said. “After about 27 holes, we slipped up a little bit, but the guys fought back and finished pretty strong, which is great. Gives us a chance tomorrow.”

– Easton Stockford

Day Two

After the major round-two struggle from ASU, the Sun Devils came out with a whole new attitude on Championship Saturday of this tournament. Leading the way once again with Williams and Bracken.

The two were paired together in what would be the heaviest-hitting group of the tournament, as San Diego graduate Ian Maspat also shot 10-under-par and finished tied fourth in the group.

Bracken would be the one to lead the way for the Sun Devils, as after his disappointing round two of 1-over-par, he would bounce back for a round three best 5-under-par.

“I had a lot of really good iron shots from close range, probably 80 to 140 yards,” Bracken said. “Hit it really nice, the wedges helped out a lot this week, had a lot of tap-ins, so it’s really nice.”

Bracken played an almost flawless round after a double-bogey on the first hole, a par 5 that he called one of the easiest holes on the course. What set it off was after a wayward drive that left him under a tree, he proceeded to clip a branch on the backswing of his next shot and chunk the shot into a bush, where he would have to take a drop.

“To turn it around and just shoot five-under-par with a double-bogey on the first hole, that was an impressive golf round,” Sutton said. “It was just flawless from start to finish, no mistakes, and really proud of him.”

Bracken would finish his tournament at 11-under-par and a tied second-place finish, which is his best as a Sun Devil to date. He would end up trailing the eventual winner in New Mexico junior Johnnie Clark, who won with a 14-under-par score.

Another guy who was in the hunt to catch Clark for the Sun Devils was Williams, who shot an impressive 4-under-par final round of his own.

“Connor just places his ball around the whole course really well,” Sutton said. “He’s an all-around player; he’s not going to dominate one part of the game, but he does almost nothing wrong.”

Williams hunt for Clark ended after his lone bogey on the par-5, fifteenth hole, where he shot the ball in the fairway bunker on his second shot before thinning his bunker shot over the green for an untimely six on a par 5.

He would end his tournament shooting 10-under-par and tied for fourth, a good sign for a player that the Sun Devils will desperately need to perform in the postseason.

In the final round, these two were paired up with one another and got to walk the 18-hole course stride for stride, and despite being a junior and a freshman, the bond between them was visibly not your average friendship.

“They’re like brothers,” head coach Matt Thurmond said. “So it’s fun that you can see that just by watching and get that feel, because that’s definitely how we want to be as a team.”

As for the rest of the Sun Devils, senior Michael Mjaaseth led the way in his return from injury as he posted a 1-under-par final round and shot 5-under-par for the tournament. This saw him join his teammates in the top 10, finishing tied for ninth.

Next up were two of the team’s freshmen, Gomez and Mauss, neither of whom had their best stuff. Mauss had the better final round shooting even-par after battling back from bogeying three of the first four holes.

Gomez, on the other hand, had the complete opposite round as he birdied both holes one and two before playing the rest of his round 4-over-par for a final round score of 2-over-par. Both of them finished their tournaments at 2-over-par and tied for 36th.

Rounding it out for the Sun Devils were their three players who were competing as individuals this weekend, in sophomore Peer Wernickie, and freshmen Bryan Newman and Kent Karlstrom.

The only final round of note was Newman’s, who shot an impressive 1-under-par round with three birdies and two bogeys. He would finish at 4-over-par and tied for 45th.

Karlstrom would be next with a final round of 5-over-par, which brought his tournament total to 8-over-par and a tie for 54th. Wernickie brought it up the rear, also shooting a final round of 5-over-par, but bringing his total to 13-over-par and a tied for 59th last place finish.

The Sun Devils will now look to the postseason, where they will return Laopakdee, who was absent this week due to his tee time at Augusta National, along with bringing in a hot Williams and Bracken and returning lone senior Mjaaseth from injury.

“We’re a young team, but we’re maybe a little better than people think,” Thurmond said. “We played a lot of tournaments without some of our top players, so maybe our ranking and record doesn’t look as good as it should, so you think we’re underdogs coming into the postseason, but we’re better than people realize.”

– Christian Jarmark