Johnston fires a Bogey-Free Third Round, Sun Devils Sit in Third

Stanford, Calf. – After taking the 36 hole lead at the Pac-12 Championship, No. 4/2 Sun Devil Men’s golf grinded through their third round, shooting 359 (68-71-72-74-74=359/+9) to sit in third place at 15-under tied with Stanford, who are two strokes behind Colorado and Washington who sit at 17-under.

Ryggs Johnston was the only Sun Devil to shoot under par with a bogey-free 68 (-2) to propel him up the leaderboard 10 spots to be at 1-under for the championship, in a tie for 24th.

“Rygg’s round was big for the team,” said assistant head coach Thomas Sutton. “On a day where not much was going right, you need a guy to step up and play solid. He didn’t have his best stuff but found a way to keep Bogeys off the card today.”

Preston Summerhays persevered through his third round with two birdies and sits at 7-under in a tie for fifth. Josele Ballester also struggled, only managing two birdies but fired a two-over 72 to sit at 3-under for the championship, in a tie for 16th. Michael Mjaaseth managed a 1-over-7` but had three birdies on the day which was tied with fellow freshman Luke Potter, who also had three birdies. Mjaaseth is tied for 16th, while Potter is in the top 30.

“Josele (Ballester) talked about you can lose battles but win the war. Preston (Summerhays) talked about how despite the tough day we are still in a great position,” said head coach Matt Thurmond. “There will always be parts of a competition that go like this in sports. The great teams respond. Maybe we find out if we are great tomorrow.”

The third round proved difficult for the majority of teams with a 71.36 scoring average on the day, more than a stroke difference compared to the second round, with seven teams being over-par on the day. 

The Sun Devils will look to rebound and make a run for their 13th conference title tomorrow when they tee off at 7:30 a.m with Oregon and Washington State. Follow @SunDevilMGolf on Twitter and Instagram for the latest coverage and videos.