Men's golf set for Pac-10 Championship

April 27, 2011

The No. 23 Arizona State men's golf team is competing in the 2011 Pac-10 Men's Golf Championships April 29-May 1 in Stanford, Calif. The 72-hole event will be held at the Stanford Golf Course (par 70/6,742 yards).

Teams will tee off on holes 1 and 10 all three days beginning at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Friday, 9:00 a.m. on Saturday and 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. Teams will play 36 holes on Friday, with the last tee time scheduled for 2:50 p.m.

Senior Jesper Kennegard took second in last year's Pac-10 Championship and tied for 13th in both 2009 and 2008. He finished in the top 10 twice this season has nine in his career.

Senior Scott Pinckney, who tallied four straight top-10 finishes this season from Feb. 2 to March 13, is participating in his third Pac-10 Championship. This is the fourth Pac-10 Championship for senior James Byrne, who tied for third in the event his freshman year. His best tournament of this season was a ninth-place finish at the ASU Thunderbird.

Junior Philip Francis tied for ninth in ASU's last tournament, the Western Intercollegiate, and has placed in the top 10 three times this season. This will be his second Pac-10 Championship, but his first as Sun Devil, after he tied for 16th at the 2008 event as a UCLA freshman. Senior Thomas Buran has a pair of top-10 finishes this season and is competing in his first Pac-10 Championship. Senior Oscar Zetterwall is also competing his first Pac-10 Championship.

ASU took fourth in last year's Pac-10 Championship with a 19-under par 1401 (337-351-348-365), while Kennegard shot a 15-under par 269 (63-66-67-73) to finish just one stroke behind the leader.

This year's tournament features five other teams ranked in the top 25, including No. 2 UCLA, No. 17 USC, No. 19 California, No. 20 Stanford and No. 22 Oregon, as well as No. 31 Washington. Rankings according to the April 27 Golfstat poll.

Hole-by-hole live scoring of the event will be available at golfstat.com and results will be posted at the conclusion of each round on pac-10.org.

THE FIELD: Arizona, Arizona State, California, UCLA, USC, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington and Washington State.

VARIETY IS GOOD : ASU became the fifth school to take home the team title since 2004 when it won in 2008 as USC (2007), UCLA (2006), Washington (2005, 2009 and 2010) and Arizona (2004) all have taken home a trophy in the past seven tournaments.

ASU'S 2008 PAC-10 TITLE: At the 2008 Pac-10 Championships at The Meadow Club (par-71, 6,686 yards) in Fairfax, Calif., ASU, playing with three freshmen, two sophomores and a senior, captured its eighth Pac-10 title in 16 years under head coach Randy Lein in a one-hole playoff over defending conference champion USC (#2 Golfstat/#3 Golfweek). ASU trailed by 16 to the Trojans after the first round. ASU shot 354-361-356-364 and tied with the Trojans (338-374-357-366) at 15-over par 1,435. The Pac-10 Championship counts the low five scores from the six-man teams.

PAC-10 SUCCESS AT ASU : Arizona State has now won 12 Pac-10 titles in its 32 seasons, including a conference record six straight from 1995-2000. In addition to the six straight Pac-10 titles, ASU's other five Pac-10 titles have come in 1979 (its first year in the league), 1981, 1989, 1990, 1993 and 2008. ASU tied for the league title in 2005 with Washington but lost on a tiebreaker formula, and the league decided to go to a playoff format after that season. In its past eight Pac-10 championships, ASU has finished first (2008), tied for first (2005), second (2004) third (2003, 2006, 2007 and 2009) and fourth (2010).

A STRAIGHT "LEIN" OF SUCCESS AT PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS: ASU coach Randy Lein has led ASU to eight Pac-10 titles in his 18 seasons. ASU previously won titles in 1993, Lein's first year, and then won six straight from 1995-2000. ASU tied for first but lost in a tiebreaker in 2005, finished second in 2001 and 2004 and third in 1994, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2009, and fourth in 2010. Since joining the Pac-10 in the 1978-79 school year, ASU has finished out of the top five just twice in its 32 championships (ninth in 2002 and sixth in 1983).

SUN DEVILS AS PAC-10 MEDALISTS: Paul Casey won three straight Pac-10 titles from 1998-2000, which is the last time a Sun Devil won the title and is a conference record for consecutive Pac-10 titles. Other Sun Devils who have won the Pac-10 championship are Scott Johnson (1997), Phil Mickelson (1990), co-medalists Dan Forsman and Tony Grimes (1981), Jim Bertoncino (co-medalist in 1980) and co-medalists Scott Watkins and Dan Croonquist (1979).

PAC-10 TEAM CHAMPIONS (since 1990):
1990 Arizona State
1991 Arizona 
1992 Stanford 
1993 Arizona State
1994 Stanford 
1995 Arizona State
1996 Arizona State
1997 Arizona State
1998 Arizona State
1999 Arizona State
2000 Arizona State
2001 USC 
2002 USC 
2003 UCLA 
2004 Arizona 
2005 Washington 
2006 UCLA
2007 USC
2008 Arizona State
2009 Washington
2010 Washington

MOST PAC-10 TEAM TITLES SINCE 1979 (ASU joined the Pac-10 in the 1978-79 athletic season):
ARIZONA STATE (12): 2008, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1993, 1990, 1989, 1981, 1979
USC (6): 2007, 2002, 2001, 1986, 1984, 1980
UCLA (5): 2006, 2003, 1985, 1983, 1982
WASHINGTON (4): 2010, 2009, 2005, 1988
ARIZONA (3): 2004, 1991, 1987
STANFORD (2): 1994, 1992

PAC-10 INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS (since 1990):
1990 Phil Mickelson, ASU 278
1991 Manny Zerman, ARIZ 278 
1992 Christian Cevaer, STAN 276 
1993 Jason Gore, ARIZ 284 
1994 Jason Gore, ARIZ 287 
1995 Charlie Wi, CAL 279 
1996 Tiger Woods, STAN 270 
1997 Scott Johnson, ASU 278
1998 Paul Casey, ASU 283
1999 Paul Casey, ASU 265*
2000 Paul Casey, ASU 265*
2001 Ricky Barnes, ARIZ 268 
2002 Jim Seki, STAN 284 
2003 John Merrick, UCLA 276 
2004 Henry Liaw, ARIZ 279 
2005 Erik Olson, WASH 276 
2006 Daniel Im, UCLA 277 
2007 Jamie Lovemark, USC 269
2008 Creighton Honeck, ARIZ 281 
2009 Darren Wallace, WASH 277 
2010 Eric Mina, CAL 268

*Lowest 72-hole individual total in Pac-10 Championship history

MOST CURRENT PLAYERS ON PGA TOUR:
ARIZONA STATE (8): Paul Casey, Matt Jones, Billy Mayfair, Phil Mickelson, Pat Perez, Jeff Quinney, Chez Reavie, Joey Snyder III
UCLA (7): Kevin Chappell, Jay Delsing, Brandt Jobe, Scott McCarron, Parker McLachlin, John Merrick, Duffy Waldorf
ARIZONA (6): Ricky Barnes, David Berganio, Jr., Jim Furyk, Robert Gamez, Ted Purdy, Rory Sabbatini
STANFORD (4): Notah Begay III, Joseph Bramlett, Zack Miller, Tiger Woods
CALIFORNIA (2): Peter Tomasulo, Charlie Wi
USC (2): Jamie Lovemark, Kevin Stadler
OREGON (1): Ben Crane
WASHINGTON (1): Alex Prugh

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