Santa Cruz, Calif. – 36 holes down at the 70th annual Western Intercollegiate, hosted at the par-70, 6616-yard Pasatiempo Golf Club, the No. 7 Arizona State men’s golf team sits in fifth, 16 strokes back off clubhouse leader Stanford (-8) at 8-over.
Collecting a cumulative day-two 1-over 351, the Sun Devils posted the second-best round of the afternoon. By virtue of their solid outing, the Maroon and Gold climbed four spots from ninth to fifth. It is important to the note that in nine tournament appearance in 2015-16, Tim Mickelson’s squad has yet to finish outside of the top-5.
Three Sun Devils M ax Rottluff (3/-7), Jared du Toit (T5/-4), and Jon Rahm (T8/-1) are positioned within the top-10 entering the final round. Each seeks to become just the fifth player in program history, and the first since to 1979 to don the coveted blue jacket.
Pacing Arizona State senior Max Rottluff carded a 4-under 66. Despite opening the round with a bogey on the par-3 eight, Rottluff quickly recovered birding the ninth, before stringing together consecutive birdies on holes 12 through 14.
Junior Jared du Toit who entered the round jockeying for position with Rottluff, recorded a steady 1-under 69.
Both Du Toit and Rottluff are on pace to garner their fourth top-10 finish of the season respectively.
World Amateur No. 1 Jon Rahm threw his hat in the ring firing a 3-under 67, to rise 30 spots from 38th to T8. At even-par through 12, the reigning Ben Hogan award winner would tally three birdies to cap off a solid round for the senior.
Rounding out the Sun Devil lineup, Alberto Sanchez (65) posted 4-over 74, while both Tobias Eden and Jino Sohn finished at 5-over 75.
The tournament is slated to conclude tomorrow beginning with an 8:45 a.m. (PT) shotgun start. Live scoring will once again be available via Golfstat.com.