ASU men's golf advances to match play quarterfinals at NCAA Championships

May 28, 2009

The No. 13 Arizona State men's golf team advanced to the match play portion of the NCAA Championships after shooting a 3-over 287 in Thursday's third round of the tournament being held at the par-71, 7,255-yard Inverness Club.<separator></separator>By virtue of the new championship format in which the 30-team field is pared down to the top eight teams after 54 holes, the Sun Devils will enter match play as the second seed after accumulating a three-round score of 10-over 862 (294-281-287). ASU's score was surpassed only by Oklahoma State, which had a three-round total of 3-under 849 (288-280-281).<separator></separator>The Sun Devils will begin match play on Friday (8:30 a.m. ET) against seventh-seeded Texas A&M (298-276-295=869). Other quarterfinal pairings include top-seeded Oklahoma State facing eighth-seeded Georgia (288-285-296=869) at 7 a.m. ET; third-seeded Southern California (305-281-279=862) going against sixth-seeded Michigan (296-285-287=868) at 9:15 a.m. ET; and fourth-seeded Arkansas (297-283-285=865) facing fifth-seeded Washington (293-286-286=865) at 7:45 a.m. ET. Later in the day (2 p.m. ET) the semifinals will pair the winner of the ASU-Texas A&M match against the USC-Michigan winner while the Oklahoma State-Georgia winner will face the Arkansas-Washington winner. The winner of those two matches will advance to Saturday's championship match scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET.<separator></separator><separator></separator> The match-play format is new this year with previous winners being determined by 72 holes of stroke play. The first team to win three of five matches will advance to the next round.<separator></separator>Knowing the tournament could not be won on Thursday, ASU's focus was to maintain its top-eight standing while at the same time maintaining its competitive approach. After starting the day in fourth place the Sun Devils would come through with a solid round that would eventually help them move up two spots by the end of the day.<separator></separator>"We have been playing with a lot of confidence recently and so even though we had a nice cushion at the start of the day I didn't want us to start getting too conservative with our approach," ASU head coach <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/lein_randy00.html">Randy Lein</a> said. "Basically the plan was to go out and play smart golf. If you get into a tough spot then just go ahead and `take your medicine' as opposed to doing anything too risky that could create an even deeper hole."<separator></separator>For the third time in as many days the Sun Devils had a different team member leading the way as freshman <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/kim_chan00.html">Chan Kim</a> came through with a 1-under 70. Kim's round included a pair of birdies as he scored under par for the first time in the tournament. After struggling on the final nine holes of Wednesday's second round, sophomore <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/borsheim_knut00.html">Kn… Borsheim</a> rebounded with an even-par 71 on Thursday. Fellow sophomore <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/kennegard_jesper00.html"… Kennegard</a> helped get the Sun Devils off to a good start on Thursday as he recorded three birdies on the team's first nine holes before eventually ending the day with a 1-over 72. Also contributing to the team's overall score was sophomore <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/pinckney_scott00.html">S… Pinckney</a>, who posted a 3-over 74 after leading the team with a 4-under 67 on Thursday.<separator></separator>"I was really proud of the guys and how they responded today," Lein said. "Knut came out and responded after yesterday's round, Scott and Jesper both performed well and were in contention for the individual national championship and as a freshman Kim came through when we needed him most and shot under par for the day."<separator></separator>The individual portion of the championship was decided on Thursday. Coming through with medalist honors with a six-under par 207 was North Carolina State's Matt Hill. ASU's top individual finisher was Kennegard, who tied for ninth place with an even par score of 213 (72-69-72). Also finishing in the top 15 for the Sun Devils was Pinckney, who tied for 13th with a 1-over 214 (73-67-74). Chan tied for 23rd with a 3-over 216 (75-71-70), Borsheim tied for 78th with an 11-over 224 (74-79-71) and freshman <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/gross_stephan00.html">St… Gross</a> tied for 121st with a 16-over 229.<separator></separator> Live stats of tomorrow's matches can be accessed by going to <a href="http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/match/bracket1261.ht…; target="_blank">golfstat.com</a>.<separator></separator><separator></separator>Team Results 1. Oklahoma State 288-280-281=849 (-3); 2. Arizona State 294-281-287=862 (+10); T3. Southern Cal 305-281-279=865 (+13); T3. Arkansas 297-283-285=865 (+13); T3. Washington 293-286-286=865 (+13); 6. Michigan 296-285-287=868 (+16); T7. Texas A&M 298-276-295=869 (+17); T7. Georgia 288-285-296=869 (+17); 9. TCU 299-285-289=873 (+21); T10. Georgia Tech 301-285-288=874 (+22); T10. UCF 300-283-291=874 (+22); 12. Tennessee 294-289-292=875 (+23); 13. San Diego 293-293-291=877 (+25); 14. Duke 297-285-296=878 (+26); 15. Alabama 298-288-293=879 (+27); 16. South Carolina 305-286-294=885 (+33); 17. Iowa 301-296-290=887 (+35); 18. Chattanooga 292-297-299=888 (+36); T19. Florida 310-287-293=890 (+38); T19. Stanford 305-298-DNP (+38); 21. Illinois 299-291-302=892 (+40); 22. Oregon 306-293-297=896 (+44); T23. Wake Forest 302-304-DNF (+47); T23. UCLA 306-295-298=899 (+47); 25. Texas Tech 303-292-305=900 (+48); T26. Virginia 306-297-DNF (+49); T26. Ohio State 294-310-DNF (+48); 28. Texas 308-300-DNF (+51); 29. Arizona 310-302-DNF (+52); 30. Northwestern 298-304-307=909 (+57) <separator></separator>Top 10 Individuals 1. Matt Hill (N.C. State) 69-69-69=207 (-6); 2. Kyle Stanley (Clemson) 72-71-66=209 (-4); T3. Rickie Fowler (Okla. State) 72-70-68=210 (-3); T3. Tom Glissmeyer 74-70-66=210 (-3); T3. Tom Hoge (TCU) 70-70-70=210 (-3); 6. Alexander Sitompul (Michigan) 72-69-70=211 (-2); T7. Blayne Barber (UCF) 75-69-68=212 (-1); T7. Morgan Hoffman (Okla. State) 72-69-71=212 (-1); T9. Brian Harman (Georgia) 71-71-71=213 (E); T9. Russell Henley (Georgia) 71-67-75=213 (E); T9. <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/mtt/kennegard_jesper00.html"… Kennegard</a> (Ariz. State) 72-69-72=213 (E); T9. Nick Taylor (Washington) 70-70-73=213 (E)<separator></separator>