Arizona men’s golf used the final round of the ASU Thunderbird Invitational to secure sole possession of 5th place. The Wildcats, in their final tune up before the Pac-12 championships, shot a total team score of 838 putting them at -14 for the tournament.
Sophomore David Laskin for Arizona tied in fifth place in the individual category. Laskin used his first round score of 64 to put him near the top of the leaderboard; that score was a career best. Laskin’s fifth place finish was also his lowest finish of his collegiate career according to Arizona Athletics. The ‘Cats had another top-10 finish in the individual category with senior George Cunningham tying for eighth place.
“We had a great round today and I was pleased with our team’s play overall,” Arizona head coach Jim Anderson said to Arizona Athletics. “We can finish our rounds better and when that happens, we will have a chance to win in the postseason. Our guys played with the top team in the country and they stepped up to post the second best round of the day.”
Arizona shot a team score of 276 in the final round on Sunday, the second lowest 18-hole team score on the day. Oklahoma State, the No. 1 team in college golf, finished with the lowest team score of round three scoring a 270.
The ‘Cats had two more golfers finish in the top-20 of the individual leaderboard, sophomore Brad Reeves and freshman Trevor Werbylo tied for 19th. Reeves shot a 68 in the final round to move 18 spots up the leaderboard. Werbylo also used the final round to shoot his lowest score of the tournament with a score of 69. Freshman Gavin Cohen rounded out the tournament for the ‘Cats placing tied for 52nd.
Arizona State took home first place on their home course with an overall team score of 830 and -22 with UNLV finishing just one stroke behind first place. This year’s leaderboard was a tight one, with first place and sixth place only separated by nine strokes. Shintaro Ben for UNLV took home first place in the individual category shooting 11 under par over the course of the weekend.
“We have a lot of positives to take from this event and we will be able to use this momentum into the Pac-12 championships as we were able to play competitively against a few of the best teams in the country,” Laskin said to Arizona Athletics.
The ‘Cats have officially finished regular season play, the team now heads to Rolling Hills Country Club in Los Angeles to play in the Pac-12 Championships from April 23-25. The team will travel to southern California with six golfers to compete against the defending Pac-12 Champions in Oregon University and the rest of the Pac-12.
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