After stumbling, loaded ASU men’s golf team is aiming at national title

TEMPE, Ariz. – The last time Arizona State’s men’s golf team teed off, the Sun Devils were at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, playing some of their worst golf of the season.

Their timing could not have been worse. It was in May at the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Golf Championship where, despite a No. 2 national ranking, ASU failed to advance past the 54-hole cut. The Sun Devils were the only team ranked among the top five in the country that missed the cut.

It was a disappointing finish for a team that had entered postseason play taking dead aim at a national championship.

“That course kicked our (expletive) at nationals,” said ASU senior Alejandro “Alex” Del Rey. “It got the best of us and we panicked last year, and over the course of the year we were never put in that situation and we didn’t handle it well. But now we have learned the lesson and we are ready.”

All of the players from that Sun Devil squad return this season a year older, a year better and prepared to battle everyone – including each other – to win a championship. And this season the Sun Devils will have the advantage of a familiar course. The nationals will be played at Grayhawk Golf Club in nearby Scottsdale for the next three years.

While ASU ended up 16th as a team last season, the Sun Devils did have a golfer who competed at a high level in Fayetteville. Chun (Kevin) An Yu, the 11th-ranked amateur in the world, finished third in the individual competition, finishing seven shots behind Oklahoma State’s national champion Matthew Wolff.

Yu, who hails from Taiwan, was a junior last season and earned All-America honors, just the 20th player in ASU history to do so. As a senior, he is the leader of an experienced and deep ASU team.

The Sun Devils, who are ranked second behind Texas in the Golf Coaches Association of America preseason poll, tee off in their first event of the season Friday, Sept. 13, at the Maui Jim Invitational at Mirabel Golf Club in Scottsdale.

The team is led by Yu, Del Rey and fellow senior Blake Wagoner. The three of them are accompanied by juniors Mason Andersen and Won Jun Lee, sophomore Cameron Sisk along with Spaniard David Puig, an incoming freshman who will enroll in January.

Those seven all are among the top 350 in the men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Sisk, Del Rey, Puig and Yu are all ranked in the top 75.

Coach Matt Thurmond’s roster of riches promises to lead to some intense internal competition. Players on ASU’s 10-man roster will be battling all season for spots on a five-member “A” team that competes in tournaments.

At last season’s nationals, the top five were Yu, Del Rey, Sisk, Andersen and Wagoner.

“We change it all the time,” Thurmond said. “We start the year with an eight-round qualifier. All 10 guys will play and the top five will be the starting five.”

Thurmond said the lineup will be fluid during the fall because many of ASU’s players will compete in other tournaments as individuals. For instance, Thurmond said Yu will only play in about half of ASU’s tournaments but will be in the lineup for the biggest events.

The toughest competition the Sun Devils face might come from teammates.

“Your spot is never solidified on this team, unless you’re Kevin,” Wagoner said, smiling. “You’ve just got to be hungry and outwork the other guys. It’s just super competitive.”

Thurmond said he probably won’t know the team’s true starting five until February or March because of all the outside tournaments, and because Puig, who is ranked 43rd in WAGR, won’t play for ASU until the spring.

“Everyone is tight right now,” Yu said. “Everyone is playing great and has the potential to play great, which is crazy.”

Del Rey, Puig’s fellow Spaniard who is ranked 54th in WAGR, said he and the other seniors have a lot to prove after the team’s performance on the national stage last season.

Del Rey said he, Wagoner and Yu have essentially played in every tournament together since their freshman season, and winning a national championship this season is all they want.

But the Sun Devils know from an experience still fresh in their minds that it will take five golfers playing at their best to do it.

And none of them know for sure who those players will be yet.

“People are just battling for those five spots with people that have been solid in those five spots for two years,” Andersen said. “There are new people coming in and taking spots, and it’s just so tough.

“This year it is going to be, whoever is playing the best in that moment will be playing in the tournament that week. Personally, I think that’s the way it should be. I think, regardless of past results or reputation, whoever is playing the best as of the tournament date should be playing in the tournament.”