TEMPE– Luke Potter hung around the leaders for the entirety of the Southwestern Invitational and carded a 1-under 71 as the Arizona State men’s golf team (275-304-289=868/+4) finished third overall and obtained their fourth straight top-3 finish Wednesday afternoon to kick off the team’s spring season. The Sun Devils finished with 59 birdies in three days, second most in the tournament.
“I thought the guys did a nice job today and how they responded. It was still a day where some things didn’t go our way,” said Head coach Matt Thurmond. “The one thing about these guys is that they keep coming back, they fought hard like we want them to and just wanted to compete. Compete like Sun Devils and that’s what we did today.”
Potter (65-75-71=211/-5) managed to bounce back Wednesday with five birdies, three on the back-9, the freshman was able to finish fourth individually to make it his second straight top-5 finish. The freshman was able to come within two strokes of the lead after birding holes 15-16 with two to play. Throughout the three days, Potter led the way in scoring average on par-4’s, compiling a 3.87 average and finishing -4 throughout the three days.
“Luke had a solid week, gave himself a chance to win, which is what I know he was trying to do.” Associate Head coach Thomas Sutton said. ” He had a great back-nine each day. He kind of struggled to get started with the round but he fought back every day which is awesome to see. I know he’ll take a lot out of this week and be better moving forward.”
Michael Mjaaseth (67-79-71=217/+1) was the second-highest-placed Sun Devil and improved by eight strokes, featuring a birdie-birdie start to move up the leaderboard. The freshman finished tied for 15th. The prominent freshmen duo compiled 31 birdies and two eagles over the three days to lead the Sun Devils.
Josele Ballester (71-75-73=219/+3) competed as an individual and won the bracket, finishing one stroke ahead of second place. There were competitors in the individual field.
The Sun Devils will travel to Waikoloa, Hawaii next week to compete in the Amer Ari Invitational Feb. 8-11. Last year, they finished in third (822/-42) at the Amer Ari with Mason Andersen finishing tied for third, followed by Preston…
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