Women's golf had home-field advantage for the Pac-12 Championships this year, ending the competition in fifth place.
The competition was held at Papago Golf Club and marked the first time the Sun Devils hosted the women's championship since 2011. ASU held the third seed this year and started out by competing against first seed Stanford on Monday.
The Sun Devils finished the regular season at The Silverado Showdown April 3-5 tied for sixth place. Before that, the team finished second at the PING/ASU Invitational, and placed second again at the Cactus Cup, earning 9.5 points.
Junior Ashley Menne is back in the lineup for the Sun Devils after missing the last tournament to compete in the Augusta National Women's Amateur. Menne is a two-time All-American golfer and currently sits at No. 27 in Golfstat Individual Rankings for the top 50 golfers.
Menne helped lead the Sun Devils on Monday, scoring a team-high of four birdies and finishing with a great scoring average on par three holes, with a 2.5 stroke average on par threes. ASU finished the first day in sixth place.
"On the first day of the tournament, it takes us some time to get back into tournament mode again," Menne said in a Sun Devil Athletics recap, following the first round. "We are determined to come out strong tomorrow and maintain our focus throughout the round."
This is head coach Missy Farr-Kaye's eighth season as the head coach, and as a previous ASU golfer, she has plenty of experience with the tournament and guiding the athletes to success.
"I expect them to settle down now that they've played a round," Farr-Kaye said in the recap. "Now that they've had a taste, I expect them to compete even harder and have fun out there tomorrow."
The Sun Devils went into the second day looking to move up in the standings as they competed against fifth-place California. Menne had another strong performance and was tied for fifth going into the final round.
The younger players on the team also stepped up and performed well in the second round. Sophomore Grace Summerhays was second in the lineup for the Sun Devils and had a consistent performance with seven straight pars.
Freshman Beth Coulter had a great breakout performance in her first Pac-12 Championship. She had three birdies and no bogeys in the last 14 holes in the round. Her score of one-under 143 through two rounds is tied for a career-low, and she had 27 pars, the third-most through two rounds in the competition. At the end of the final round, Coulter was awarded by the Pac-12 conference for placing second overall.
"I knew I could make a few putts, and thankfully a few dropped," Coulter said in a recap following the round. "It was really nice to get that momentum from yesterday and see them dropping today."
After the second round, ASU held fifth place in the championship and looked to improve in the final round against fourth-place Oregon.
Coulter had another impressive performance in the final round, finishing at 68 and tied for second-best in the third round. Menne finished tied for 17th overall after shooting a 75 in the round. The team finished the championship fifth with an overall score of 871.
The Sun Devils will next be competing at the NCAA Regionals starting May 8. ASU will once again play host when the NCAA Championship comes to Scottsdale on May 19.
Edited by Kathryn Field, Reagan Priest and Caera Learmonth.
Reach the reporter at katrinamic03@gmail.com and follow @kat_m67 on Twitter.
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