After wrapping up its Pac 12 era with a conference championship, Sun Devils men's golf aims to get off on the right foot in the Big 12 at the Big 12 Match Play from Oct. 7 to 9 in Hockley, Texas.
“Previously, we really didn't have any match play on the schedule until nationals so it was always a new format when it really mattered," associate head coach Thomas Sutton said. "So I think the Big 12 Match Play is going to be cool because our guys get to play under the gun against some of the best teams in the country in a match-play-only tournament."
The Sun Devils enter the three-day match play ranked second in the nation in the college golf Coaches' Poll. Other Big 12 teams ranked include No. 12 UA, No. 14 Texas Tech and No. 18 Oklahoma State. In their first three tournaments, the Sun Devils won the Sahalee Players Championship, placed second in the Fighting Illini Invitational and fifth in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational.
ASU will send six golfers to the match-play event. Senior Josele Ballester, senior Preston Summerhays, junior Michael Mjaaseth, sophomore Connor Williams, sophomore Nick Prieto and freshman Peer Wernicke will hit the green.
Summerhayes and Ballester lead the way ranked first and second in the nation in the PGA Tour University rankings for the week of Sept. 25. As the only two seniors on the roster, their contributions are not limited to their performance on the course.
"Connor Williams, Peer Wernicke, they follow Preston and Josele around, and they'll tell them about the course we're about to play, the shots they need to hit, give them some stories on where they made mistakes and how you might avoid these," Sutton said.
Ballester is off to a blazing start this year after tying for second place in the Sahalee Players Championship and winning his first collegiate tournament at the Fighting Illini Invitational with a tournament record-tying 10-under-par performance. Ballester also took home the 124th U.S. Amateur Championship this August.
As for Summerhayes, he is coming off a PING GCAA All-America third-team selection last season and his best tournament so far this season by tying Ballester in the Sahalee Players Championship. His other top-25 finish was good for 25th place in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational.
Another standout player for the Sun Devils is sophomore Connor Williams, who has two top-10 finishes this season. Williams placed sixth in the Sahalee Players Championship and eighth in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational. He also picked up a top-20 spot in the Fighting Illini Invitational with a 17th-place finish.
Williams credits his ball striking, specifically off the tee, for the hot start and said it is a product of working on his driver this offseason.
"I feel like in the past that hasn't been a strength of mine, almost a weakness at times, and especially at this level and moving forward to professional golf, everybody that contends is a great driver of the ball and it just makes the game a lot easier," Williams said. "So that was a big focus of mine — getting a little bit of speed as well as being more accurate."
Peer Wernicke, the lone freshman on the team is off to an impressive start to his collegiate career with top-15 performances in all three tournaments this season. Wernicke has a pair of 11th-place finishes in the Fighting Illini Invitational and Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational and a 13th-place finish in the Sahalee Players Championship.
"He's a great ball striker and super patient on the course," Sutton said. "He's not always playing the most perfect golf, but he hits a lot of balls on the fairway, hits a lot of greens, and he never really gets himself out of it with his game."
Hailing from Leverkusen, Germany, Wernicke is still adjusting to life in the United States, but his mentality has put him in situations to succeed.
"I really try to control the things I can control before the tournaments like my preparation and also during the tournaments," Wernicke said. "So I would say the mindset has been really good and I've gained a lot of confidence through practicing with the boys, and that definitely helped me to succeed in the first few tournaments."
The Sun Devils roster has a balance of standout seniors and underclassmen who look to make noise in the Big 12, and their first opportunity is next Monday in Texas.
Edited by Jack Barron, Sophia Braccio and Madeline Schmitke.
Reach the reporter at jmjanes1@asu.edu and follow @JackJanes_ on X.
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