The Sun Devil men’s golf team fell to Arizona 8-1-3 in the opening round of the Copper Cup on Monday to start the spring season.
ASU will now face USC Tuesday in the consolation round, who lost to UCLA 7-1-3.
The four-team Ryder Cup-style event at El Niguel Country Club in Laguna Niguel, California features a match-play format that combines alternate-shot foursomes and singles matches across two days of scoring.
Each team is fielding eight players per session opening with morning foursomes followed by afternoon singles matches.
Random rankings
ASU is ranked seventh in the Scorebard rankings with a head-to-head record of 32-20-1 with wins at the Sahalee Players Championship in Seattle (Sept. 6-7) and Utah's The Wohali (Sept. 15-16). Connor Williams enters January ranked 18th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, while Michael Mjaaseth (No. 21) and Fifa Laopakdee (No. 32) are in the top 35.
Day One Recap (Monday, Jan. 19)
ASU’s Peer Wernicke and Michael Mjaaseth played to a draw with William Wistrand and Maej Baca in a morning match. ASU was up two holes after 10 but the Wildcats earned the draw with a birdie on 18.
Boston Bracken and newcomer Bryan Newman earned a point with a 4 & 3 win over Dilon Dean and Connor Hamm.
Also getting a full point was the team of Connor Williams and Bowen Mauss while newcomer Raul Gomez won his match over Matej Baca.