NCAA Golf News

Men’s Golf Season Recap: Lots of Good, Goal is Better

Men's Golf Season Recap: Lots of Good, Goal is Better


The Sun Devil men’s golf team under seventh-year head coach Matt Thurmond advanced to NCAA championship match play for the third straight season, finished third in the Golfstat rankings, won its Thunderbird Invitational and the Las Vegas Regional and sophomore Preston Summerhays earned first-team All-America honors. ASU did all that with just one returning starter from its 2022 NCAA semifinalist lineup and had two freshman in the lineup most of the year.

MATCH PLAY NOTE

Arizona State, North Carolina and Pepperdine were the only three schools to make match play in each of the three years at Grayhawk, while only Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt also made the 54-hole Sunday evening cut. Only 13 teams reached Grayhawk all three year seasons.

  

WILD GOLFSTAT FINAL RANKING NOTE



ASU finished third in the final Golfstat rankings, which followed a solid pattern. ASU has now finished seventh (2018-19), sixth (2019-20), fifth (2020-21), fourth (2021-22) and third in its past five seasons. Coach Thurmond’s squad was 22nd in 2017-18 and 20th in 2016-17.

COACH MATT FINALIST FOR GCAA DAVE WILLIAMS AWARD

Coach Matt Thurmond was one of five NCAA Division I finalists for the 2023 Dave Williams Award presented by Golf Pride Grip. The other finalists were Bruce Heppler of Georgia Tech, Scott Limbaugh of Vanderbilt, Conrad Ray of Stanford and Mike Small of Illinois. Coach Thurmond led ASU to top-six finishes in all 13 tournaments this season, including victories in two of their last three at the Thunderbird Collegiate and 2023 NCAA Las Vegas Regional. The Sun Devils were led on the course by five All-Pac-12 golfers, including 2023 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Michael Mjaaseth

HEAD-TO-HEAD NOTE PER GOLFWEEK

Arizona State posted a 143-27-3 head-to-head record on the seaso (per Golfweek), and had the most wins of any team in the nation against both top 25 (68-26-3) and top 50 (104-27-3) foes. ASU’s schedule was second-best in nation, behind only Texas.

BIRDIES IN A SEASON

Preston Summerhays had 163 birdies on the year, the most since Jon Rahm had 179 in his senior year (2015-16), In the Golfstat era, only Rahm (three times), Max Rotluff, Niklas Lemke and 2003 NCAA champion Alejandro Canizares have had more Sun Devil birdies in a season.

BIRDIES IN A SEASON

183-Jon Rahm, 2014-15

179-Jon Rahm, 2015-16

173-Max Rottluff, 2014-15

170-Niklas Lemke, 2005-06

165-Jon Rahm, 2012-13

164-Alejandro Canizares, 2003-04

163-Preston Sommerhays, 2022-23

GCAA…

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