“The last two years, we had a chance to win and Oklahoma State beat us both times,” said Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond. “We are so excited to finally hold the trophy.”
The ASU counting scores by Johnston, a freshman from Libby, Mont.; Puig, a freshman from Spain; Sisk, a sophomore from San Diego, Calif., and the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019 were completed by a 1- under 70 from junior Mason Andersen, of Chandler, Ariz.
The Sun Devils, who were in third place through 36 holes, made an early move as Puig logged four birdies in his first six holes and Sisk was 3-under through two holes with a birdie-eagle start.
“It was huge for our team to have a couple of hot starts,” Sisk said. “It put us in a good position for the rest of the round. I didn’t really know where we were, but I knew it was a big boost for our team and me individually.” Runner-up Texas A&M climbed six places on the strength of medalist Walker Lee’s 7-under 64 and Dan Erickson’s 69. The Aggies posted a Round 3 278 (6-under) and a 54-hole total of 840.
Texas A&M’s Lee Matches Course Record in Cabo Collegiate Victory#AggieGolf | #GigEm https://t.co/YieVA4Wuwj
— Texas A&M Men's Golf (@AggieMensGolf) March 3, 2020
Lee, a junior from Houston, fired a bogey-free round that included a birdie-eagle finish on his last two holes for a 54-hole total of 205, one stroke better than Barclay Brown of Stanford and Johnny Keefer of Baylor. Lee, who played in the 2017 U.S. Open, made five birdies and the eagle in Round 3.
“The strength of my game today was how smart I was,” Lee said. “There were a bunch of pins out there today that you couldn’t shoot at -- just play to the middle of the green and take your 20-footer and make your par and got to the next hole. Along with that, my irons were good today.”
Arizona State and Texas A&M were the only teams to break par in the windiest conditions of the three-day event.
Vanderbilt was third at 842 and Arizona, the leader through 36 holes, finished fourth at 847 and Baylor was fifth at 849.
Notable
- Arizona State finished fourth in 2018 and second in 2019 both times when Oklahoma State was the champion.
- Walker Lee’s 64 was the third in Round 3 in event history – the others were posted by Collin Morikawa of California (medalist in 2018) and Matthew Wolff of Oklahoma (in 2019). The only other 64 in competition history was fired by Stanford’s Barclay Brown in Round 2 Monday.
- Julian Perico of Arkansas holed a 140-yard 50-degree wedge shot for a double eagle 2 on the par-5 16th hole and finished with a 2-under 69.
