No. 5 ASU men's golf wrapped up the 2024-25 regular season by sweeping the ASU Thunderbird Collegiate at Papago Golf Club this weekend.
The tournament was the Sun Devils' third-consecutive Thunderbird Collegiate title and 23rd of all time. ASU won by 12 strokes at an impressive 39-under mark.
Sophomore Fifa Laopakdee and senior Preston Summerhays each earned a podium finish, and Laopakdee was awarded the individual trophy after shooting 12-under. This marked the fourth consecutive Thunderbird Collegiate tournament in which a Sun Devil won the individual title.
Summerhays didn't mind ending his regular season on a course he's comfortable at after already winning the tournament twice.
"Growing up in Arizona, I've played the junior Thunderbird here plenty of times, so it's a course that I've played a lot of rounds at, and obviously it was our facility being out here, and this being our home course, we get to see it a lot," Summerhays said. "It's nice to end our regular season on a familiar track and play some good golf."
The Sun Devils have been competing with a compact roster of seven. Associate head coach Thomas Sutton believes the smaller team has helped improve each player's game.
"Everybody's gotten a lot of chances to play," Sutton said. "We know how every guy's game looks, how much they've progressed, what they're working on. So, it's really fun to be with the guys and to take what we learn from each tournament and go work on it and see how we do for the next event."
ASU has missed Summerhays and 2024 U.S. Amateur Champion Josele Ballester several times this season when the two were competing in other events. Ballester was absent this weekend while competing in the 2025 Masters Tournament, and head coach Matt Thurmond followed him to Augusta, Georgia.
"It gives the kids opportunities to play at the highest level, and it puts the pressure on them, they're like, 'I've got to step up my game,'" Sutton said. "Our expectations are to compete in every event no matter what five we take, and those guys feel that, so it's a really good experience for these guys, especially the young ones."
ASU is nearing its first Big 12 Championship appearance in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from April 22 to 24. The squad is aiming for nothing less than back-to-back conference titles after winning the Pac-12 last season. It's just another game of golf for Summerhays.
"No matter what event it is, whether it's just a fun round with your buddies or the national championship, every single shot is the same," Summerhays said. "You really take every tournament, every round, one shot at a time, so no matter where that's at, that's what we're gonna do."
Sutton is aware of the challenge ahead, but he couldn't have more confidence in his team.
"It's going to be a really tough challenge against teams that have played that course a lot," Sutton said. "We're going to play them, we're going to need to play well to have a chance, but I don't think coach Thurmond or myself would want to go to this tournament with anybody else. We like our group."
Some of that confidence spread to Laopakdee, who believes ASU is full of potential as postseason play begins.
"(We're) one of the best teams for sure in the nation if we all play great golf," Laopakdee said. "Even though all of us didn't play great golf, every day we're still up there for contention every event. We know we have such a great team."
Edited by Jack Barron, Sophia Braccio and Katrina Michalak.
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Ethan is a sophomore studying sports journalism. This is his first semester at The State Press. He has also worked at Blaze Radio.
