No. 4/5 Sun Devil Men's Golf has made it back its home national championship and will look to make it one better than the 2022 National Runner-Up team. ASU enters with two wins in its last three events, sandwiched around a second place finish at the Pac-12 Championship.
ASU will tee it off with Pac-12 foe Stanford along with Texas Tech, beginning at 11:52 a.m. MST on the first hole Friday. The athletes go off at 11:52, 12:03, 12:14, 12:25 and 12:36. The same pairs will go ahead Saturday beginning at 6:32 a.m. on the 10th tee. Pairs beyond that point have not been announced.
#10Things - TWITTER FRIENDLY NOTES
- In it's three years of hosting the NCAA Men's and Women's Championships, Grayhawk Golf Club has housed nearly 500 different student-athletes.
- Arizona State is the only school in the country to have made at least 20 NCAA Men's and Women's Championships since 2000 (Women's 21, Men's 20).
- Preston Summerhays has finished in the top five in five of his last seven tournaments.
- ASU's 59-under 805 at the Las Vegas Regional was the lowest regional score in NCAA history and the lowest 54-hole score by an ASU team, ever.
- Josele Ballester has three top-seven finishes in the last four tournaments individually. He has four total top-seven results on the entire season.
- Getting to Grayhawk is not a given, as nine teams in the top 30 (Golfstat) did not make it out of the regional. This is up from eight last year.
- Per the Golfweek rankings, ASU has the most wins of any team in the nation against both Top 25 (56-19-2) and Top 50 (84-20-2) foes.
- Two Sun Devils return from last season's lineup, Preston Summerhays and Josele Ballester.
- Ryggs Johnston has a career-best third place individual finish at the 2021 NCAA Championships.
- Sun Devil Men's Golf led the field on par-3 holes at the Las Vegas Regional, shooting even for the event. Second-best was ETSU at four-ver.
THE COURSE
- Grayhawk Golf Club has hosted the last the three NCAA National Championships and is located in Scottsdale, less than 25 miles from ASU's home.
- The course measures 7,289 yards and is a par 70.
THE FORMAT
- Squads will play four rounds - 18 holes per day from Friday – Monday – before the top eight teams advance to match play.
- Should the Sun Devils advance, the schedule calls for the national quarterfinals and semifinals on Tuesday, before the national match Wednesday.
- Teams will be seeded 1-8 with the following matchups: 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4, vs. 5.
THE LINEUP
- The Sun Devils will roll out their All-Pac-12 lineup of Preston Summerhays (1), Josele Ballester (2), Michael Mjaaseth (3), Luke Potter (4), Ryggs Johnston (5).
- The Sun Devils have now made the NCAA Finals in the past eight seasons, the fourth-best mark in the nation. Texas (16), Oklahoma (12) and Vanderbilt (9) are the only schools with longer streaks.
DANGER ZONE
- Getting to Grayhawk isn't easy, as nine teams ranked in the Golfstat top 30 after regional action had their season's end in 2023. That's up from eight-such team's not escaping regionals in 2022.
- The Sun Devils have now made the NCAA Finals in the past eight seasons, the fourth-best mark in the nation. Texas (16), Oklahoma (12) and Vanderbilt (9) are the only schools with longer streaks.
REGIONAL MADNESS
- ASU's performance at the Las Vegas Regional shattered program and NCAA records.
- The 59-under 805 was ASU's lowest three-round tournament score in program history.
- It was also the lowest score vs. par an ASU team has ever had.
- Additionally, it shattered both of the same records for any team to ever compete in an NCAA Regional.
62 (SIXTY TWO)
- Preston Summerhays fired a ridiculous 10-under in the opening round of the 2023 Las Vegas Regional.
- He fired two eagles on the front-nine and carded a bogey-free back-nine. He birdied the first three holes of the back-9 and the last two, going 5-under on both the front and back. He totaled seven birdies and just one bogey in the round.
- He became the just the fifth Sun Devils to fire a 62-or-better card.
- The 10-under card is just the third for Arizona State in the Golfstat era. Of the other two, only Paul Casey's 10-under 60 in the 1999 Pac-12 Championship came in postseason play.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
- Arizona State has 122-20-2 record on the season, per Golfweek.
- Per the Golfweek rankings, ASU has the most wins of any team in the nation against both Top 25 (56-19-2) and Top 50 (84-20-2) foes.
- It's also not close. ASU has a seven-win edge against anyone else over top 25 teams, while the Sun Devils have 78 wins over top 50 teams and no one else has more than 60.
HASKINS WATCH
- Preston Summerhays was named Final Haskins Award Watch List on Monday, May 22.
- He is one of 10 men's college golfers on the list for the prize of the best in the country. Voting for the 2023 Haskins Award opened on the 22nd. It will remain open until the completion of the stroke play on May 29.
- Phil Mickelson won three straight Haskins Awards and Billy Mayfair picked up the first honor in team history in 1987 for ASU's first honor.