(Photo: Ben Parris/Sun Devil Athletics)
Arizona State missed standout Josele Ballester this week in Fort Worth as the Sun Devils finished in fifth at the Ben Hogan Collegiate played at Colonial Country Club. ASU had previously finished top-three in five straight non-postseason tournaments.
Ballester, fresh off his first collegiate win in the Fighting Illini Invitational, played in the Spanish Open on the DP World Tour over the weekend with former Arizona State golfers John Rahm and David Puig. Meanwhile the rest of Arizona State’s roster went to Fort Worth to take on some of the best talent collegiate golf has to offer in the Ben Hogan Collegiate.
While Arizona State couldn’t keep the streak of top-three finishes they kept their streak of top-five finishes alive and extended it to six.
Sophomore Connor Willaims led the way for the Sun Devils shooting back-to-back rounds of 71 (+1) then cleaning it up in the third round shooting 68 to put himself even for the tournament and propelling him to eighth on the leaderboard.
The freshman Peer Wernicke has had a strong start to his collegiate career and this tournament was no different. Wernicke, who finished T13 at the Sahalee Players championship and T11 at the Fighting Illini Invitational, continued his steady play. He finished T11 with a score of +1. He shot 2-over through the first two rounds then scored a 69 (-1) in round three.
Senior Preston Summerhays, who remains PGA Tour University’s No.1 golfer, finished T25 this week shooting 4-over.
The highest scoring Sun Devil was Michael Mjaaseth who finished at 6-over par. Mjaaseth started the tournament out strong with an even score in round one but back-to-back rounds of 3-over 73 left Mjaaseth standing alone in 34th on the leaderboard.
Arizona State, which finished third at the Ben Hogan Collegiate last season, continued its success in this tournament, marking the third event of the fall campaign.
Arizona State gets its introduction to the Big 12 next week in its first ever Big 12 match play October 7-9.
