May 2, 2008
Only two tables are occupied at the Karsten Golf Course clubhouse on a Wednesday afternoon in January.
At one table, four gentlemen share a pitcher and cool off after a round on one of the country's top university courses. At the other, ASU men's golf coach Randy Lein chats with the family of a foreign golfer who's interested in playing for the Sun Devils.
If he's like most ASU golf recruits, he doesn't need to be told that Phil Mickelson once wore the maroon and gold of ASU. "They know," Lein said. "I've told people that Arizona State's always had a competitive golf program, but two things elevated it into the perennial top 10. Those were the opening of Karsten Golf Course in '88 and Phil Mickelson attending. "All of a sudden you had something big to sell in having the course on campus. And then Phil, obviously, everyone knows Phil."
These days, the ASU men's golf brand boasts more than just Phil. In addition to the two national championships and 11 Pac-10 titles the Sun Devils have claimed in men's golf, the Sun Devils recently added one more accolade. When the 2008 PGA Tour roster was finalized last month, it contained a whopping 11 former Sun Devils. No other school can match that number. Oklahoma State is next with nine tour players, and UCLA and Texas each placed eight golfers on the tour, while Wake Forest had seven.
There was nothing gradual about the tour's acquisition of its maroon-and-gold tint. There were just half a dozen Devils on the tour until five more earned their cards for 2008. With 51 new players earning their cards heading into the 2008 season, nearly 10 percent of this year's additions once wore maroon and gold.
Matt Jones and Chez Reavie graduated from the developmental Nationwide Tour by being among the top 25 players on the money list for 2007. Jones, a 27-year-old native of Sydney, Australia, finished seventh on the money list with $302,226. And Reavie, a 25-year-old Mesa native who graduated from Dobson High, finished 18th on the money list with $224,532. Jin Park, Todd Demsey and Alejandro Canizares did it the hard way -- surviving multiple rounds of qualifying school to punch their tickets to the big time. Park, who was born in Korea but attended high school in California, finished fourth to earn his card and create another bragging point for ASU. When Park finally earned his card, he became the fifth member of the Sun Devils' 2000-01 team to make it to the PGA Tour, joining Reavie, Jones, Paul Casey and Jeff Quinney.
"That's incredible," Lein said. "You go through the rosters, I think Clemson might have had three [teammates reach the PGA Tour] at one time, but I can't think of another school that even had two."
Demsey, who won an NCAA championship in 1993 and earned Pac-10 Player of the Year honors in 1994, finished eighth at qualifying school. Canizares, a Spaniard who has spent the last few years on the European Tour, finished 23rd. Demsey first earned his tour card in 1997, but lost it after a rough rookie season. His comeback has been slowed by back problems and a benign brain tumor that's already required two surgeries to remove and may call for additional procedures.
The class of '08 joins a diverse group of six tour players who are bound only by their love of golf and their ASU backgrounds. The returnees range in age from the 29-year-old Quinney, named to PGATour.com's "Top 20 in Their 20s" list last month, to the 41-year-old Billy Mayfair, who became the first and only player to beat Tiger Woods in a playoff when he won at the 1998 Nissan Open.
And they hail from locales as distinct as Phoenix in the case of Pat Perez, Western New York in the case of Joey Snyder and Cheltenham, England, in the case of Casey. The range of geographies from which he has recruited has been one of the keys for Lein. He credits his most recent international successes in part to the success of Casey, who at the age of 30 has already won more than $11 million. "In this country, everyone knows Phil Mickelson," Lein said. "In Europe, everyone knows Paul Casey."
And then, of course, there's Phil. Lefty has earned $48.7 million and won three major championships since capturing three NCAA titles and being named a first-team All-American four years in a row from 1989-92. Despite his recent move from Scottsdale to his hometown of San Diego, Mickelson has stayed heavily involved in the ASU program. "Phil's a very strong supporter of the program. He watches it closely," Lein said. "It's important for him. He had a great experience here. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame and won an ASU Alumni Achievement Award in March. He's busy, needless to say, but he supports us and he loves ASU."
That statement extends to all of ASU's former golfers now on the PGA Tour. Only Mickelson and Canizares currently live outside the Valley, and Canizares is considering moving back to Arizona as he transitions from the European Tour to the PGA.
It's not uncommon for the local alums to meet up with current Sun Devils to play a round or two -- and offer a few pointers. "They live here, near ASU," Lein said. "I don't see how they could be much more involved. They're big Sun Devil fans."
The alums' level of commitment was demonstrated in November when Lein organized a two-day reunion golf tournament at Karsten the weekend of the football team's game against the University of Arizona. The event drew 120 former Sun Devils, including 25 former members of the women's team. All of the big names were there. Even when rain restricted play to a handful of holes, the festivities carried over to the clubhouse. "They came in here and told stories," Lein said. "They had a great time. All these guys were there. Phil probably had as much fun as anyone."
The pipeline to the PGA shows no signs of slowing down. Former Sun Devil Darren Angel is fully exempt for this year's Nationwide Tour and has a PGA ETA of 2009 or 2010.
Of course, Lein is not solely concerned with placing golfers in the professional ranks. In fact, the most important deliverable in his job description is championships at the college level. He's finished in the top 10 at nationals nine times in 15 years and won a national championship in 1996. He figures he's got another good run in him before he retires in five or so years.
"We have a very young talented team," he said of his current roster, led by Norwegian sophomore Knut Borsheim and a trio of promising freshmen. "Maybe not this year, though we'll be competitive, but it would be a surprise to win it all. But in 2009 or 2010, we've set in motion the pieces for a team that could win the whole thing."
The fact that he's won just one national title gnaws at him, but he doesn't have to look far from the ASU community for a point of reference. He compares his feelings about winning title No. 2 to those a famous former Devil felt not long ago. "It's like Phil. He won that first major and that was great, but then the second one was just as satisfying because it validated the first one," Lein said. "So, for me, I'd like to win another national title before my days are up. And I do think it's going to happen in the next two or three years."