ASU Golf: U.S. Open Filled with Devils
The U.S. Open will have 144 golfers in the field from around the world competing for one of golf’s prestigious four majors at Winged Foot over the next few days. Eight of them have connections with Arizona State’s men’s golf team. There’s even an all Sun Devils grouping this year, so let’s take a look at how these players fared after day one.
The All-Devil threesome that is teeing off together over the first two days of the open includes alums Jon Rahm, Paul Casey and Phil Mickelson. There are three more competitors in the field that also played collegiate golf at ASU, in Matt Jones, Chez Reavie and Chan Kim.
Current men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond will also have a current, and future golfer represent the school in New York. He will be the caddie for 5th-year senior Kevin (Chun An) Yu, while Preston Summerhays, who committed to ASU last year and is part of the 2021 class, is also competing.
Touted as one of the most challenging courses for the U.S Open, with rugged terrain and difficult out-of-bounds play, Winged Foot has given these Sun Devils some issues early on. Jon Rahm, who is ranked 2nd in the world, is the only ASU guy that has looked solid. Rahm had a pretty consistent round one, converting three birdies and only two bogeys, to put him at -1, shooting a 69 on a par-70 course. On Friday, Rahm shot +2 after struggling early but hit two birdies on the final three holes to put him at +1 heading into the weekend.
As for his group mates, Paul Casey shot a +6 on Thursday, as he struggled on the back nine. Casey rebounded and played much better, shooting an E during round two, keeping him at +6. Phil Mickelson looked even worse. The lefty birdied on the first two holes of the Open and then fell apart. He then bogeyed the next three holes, finishing with nine bogeys and a double-bogey to put him at +9 after round one, as he only hit the fairway on 27% of his drives. It didn’t get much better on Friday for Phil, as he shot +4, only putting one birdie. Both he and Casey are in danger of missing the cut, and not playing this weekend.
As for the other former Devils, Chez Reavie sits at +5 after shooting a bogey on hole 18. Matt Jones finished day one at +6, and just finished his second round, totaling +10, as he will not make the cut. Chan Kim, on the other hand, had a very good day one, shooting par on 15 of the holes, and finishing at +1 after shooting a 71. Unfortunately, Friday didn’t fare as well for Kim, as he shot six-over to put him at +7 after two rounds. The other two golfers are set to tee off later in the day for round two.
Kevin Yu has arguably looked the best out of the eight Devils. Yu finished Thursday shooting a 70, which puts him at even-par for the day, after hitting an eagle on hole six. His drives have looked exceptional, as he gained an average of one-stroke off the tee. While soon-to-be Sun Devil Preston Summerhays also played well through 18 holes. He had a rough start after he double-bogeyed hole one, but finished strong and ended the day +2, to put him towards the top-25 of the leaderboard.
The top-60 golfers, including ties, through 36 holes, will make the cut. There’s still hope that five Devils can make it into the weekend, as we continue to monitor how the rest of round two will go. Either way, having eight players with connections to Sun Devil golf is an accomplishment in itself.
