Sept. 16, 2011
The Arizona State men's golf team is tied for 10th after the first round of the Olympia Fields Invitational in Olympia Fields, Ill. The Sun Devils finished with a 10-over par 290, led by senior Spencer Fletcher with a 1-under par 69.
Fletcher's 69 was the second-best of his college career. He shot a 64 in the third round of the 2010 ASU Thunderbird Invitational. He is tied for fifth.
"Spencer did a great job in getting us started early and our freshmen really settled down and grinded their way to solid back-nine scores," Sun Devil coach Tim Mickelson said, coaching in Maroon and Gold for the first time.
ASU's three freshman, making their first starts in a college tournament, finished 13-over par on the front nine before posting a much-improved 3-over par on the back nine.
Austin Quick shot a 2-over par 37 on the front nine, but was even on the back. Mathias Schjoelberg was 4-over par on the front, but finished the back nine at 1-under par, while Cameron Palmer was 7-over par on the front, and 4-over par on the back.
"For those three guys playing in a college tournament for the first time and it being a different course than what we are used to over the past few weeks, it was good see them stay with it and improve," Mickelson said.
Quick finished with a round of 72, tied for 25th. Schjoelberg shot a 73, which is tied for 36th, and Palmer shot an 81 and is tied for 74th.
Schjoelberg birdied 16 before posting eagle on 17, making him one of two golfers to eagle a hole on the day.
"Mathias had a great finish and that gives him a lot of confidence heading towards Saturday," Mickelson said.
Junior Jin Song shot a consistent 3-over par on both the front and back nine, finishing with a 76. He is tied for 63rd.
Stanford is on top of the leader board with a 3-under par 277. Oklahoma State trails them by 5 strokes with a 2-over par 282, and Auburn, Alabama, and Ohio State are all tied for third with a 5-over par 285.
The first group tees off at 6:00 a.m. (PT) Saturday morning. Live scoring of the tournament will be available at Golfstat.com.