![[year first name lastname] grins after sinking a putt in the Thunderbird Invitational tournament on Saturday, April 4, 2015 at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe. (Ben Moffat/The State Press)](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/asp/bd792ee6-2aca-4b94-ac9e-17543174d0c0.sized-1000x1000.jpg?w=1000)
The ASU men's golf team took home second place in the South Dakota State Invitational after two straight days of dominant golf, hitting +1 for the entire event and -15 for the last two days.
They lost to South Florida who hit an impressive -18 throughout the entire tournament, which featured Texas A&M, Oregon, Michigan State and Nebraska in Valentine, Nebraska.
The Sun Devils group of seniors Jon Rahm, Alberto Sanchez juniors Jared du-Toit, Niccolo Galletti and sophomore Tobias Eden faced McNeese State and Texas A&M in the first day of the tournament.
ASU had an average day, hitting +16 and was tied for seventh place with McNeese State. The players individually did not get off on the right foot, every one of them hit above par. The best was from Rahm with +3 and the worst was Galletti with +7. The Sun Devils needed a productive day two if they wanted to stay in contention for first place and they got it.
The Sun Devils hit -8 and cut their shot total in half with the score being +8 and in fifth place, just two hits behind Texas A&M.
Three of five ASU players got three below par (Rahm, Sanchez, Du-Toit), and Eden and Galletti both had good days as well, hitting +1 and +3 in rounds with Connecticut and McNeese State.
In great position to make one final push toward the top of the leaderboard, ASU hit -7 on the last day of the competition and jumped three spots to secure a second-place finish.
The Sun Devils were aided by Michigan State's slide: The Spartans were in second place at the beginning of day three but fell four places after hitting +11.
After two weeks off, ASU will resume competition on Oct. 12, at the two-day Alister MacKenzie Invitational in Fairfax, California.
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
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