April 15, 2009
Fresh off a first place finish at the 37th annual Thunderbird Invitational, the No. 22 Sun Devils look to build on their recent success in the upcoming U.S. Intercollegiate, April 18-19. The tournament, hosted by Stanford University, will be played at the university's 6727-yard, par-70 campus course.
Five of the 17 teams participating in the event are ranked in the top-25, including Pac-10 squads No. 3 USC, No. 5 Stanford, No. 9 Washington and ASU.
The rest of the participants are No. 18 Texas, Chico State, Northwestern, Oregon State, Pepperdine, Santa Clara, St. Andrews University (Scotland), Washington State, California, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA and Oregon.
Teams will begin arriving in Palo Alto on Thursday night, with practice rounds beginning at 8:00 a.m. Friday morning. The Sun Devils will hone their skills during the 8:00-8:15 a.m. session.
The first and second rounds will be played simultaneously on Saturday, beginning in the morning with a shotgun start. The third and final round commences at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, with the awards ceremony set for noon.
ASU finished sixth at the Intercollegiate last year and will field a team of three sophomores, one junior and a freshman.
Sophomore Jesper Kennegard ended the event in fifth last year, while classmate Stephan Gross placed 29th. Gross, hoping his hot streak continues, is coming off his first career victory in the Thunderbird Invitational less than a week ago. Scott Pinckney, a sophomore, tied for third at the Thunderbird. Freshman Chan Kim, making his fifth appearance of the season, was in the top-20 at the end of last tournament in Tempe.
Live scoring of all three rounds of the event can be found at golfstat.com.