A clean sweep for Arizona State at Southwestern Invitational
Courtesy of ASU Athletics
It was a clean sweep for the third-ranked Arizona State at the Southwestern Invitational on Wednesday as the Sun Devils and junior David Puig walked away with the team and individual titles.
The Sun Devils carded a final round of 13-under 283 to finish 30-under 834, setting the tournament record for the 54-hole event to earn a 13-stroke victory over host Pepperdine, which finished at -17 under 847 following a final round of 5-under 283.
Arizona State was a combined 25-under for the last two rounds to run away with the team title while senior David Puig shot as final round 7-under 65 to successfully defend his individual championship.
The Sun Devils, who began the final round with a six-shot lead, poured it on and posted a Southwestern-record team score of 30-under to win by 13 shots. ASU won its record ninth Southwestern title, and its first since 2001.
"There was a disappointment exactly a year ago here … where we had a chance to win one and we didn't quite get it done," ASU head coach Mark Thurmond told the GOLF Channel. "But we win a lot of tournaments, this was just one that we really wanted to finish off better this time and I'm so proud of these guys, we played awesome for three days."
Puig earned a two-stroke victory over Michael Brennan of Wake Forest and teammate Cameron Sisk to become the first-ever back-to-back winner at the Southwestern, and just the fourth player to win multiple Southwestern titles. The victory was his third overall as a collegian.
"I know we had a six-shot lead to start the day and I trust these guys a lot, I know they are really really good, they practice so hard too, so I was pretty relaxed the whole day and we did awesome as a team," Puig told the GOLF Channel.
Puig had eight birdies and an eagle en route to a final round 65, which was just one stroke off the tournament record, as he passed 36 hole leaders Trent Phillips of Georgia and Devon Bling of UCLA, who struggled to rounds of 78 and 79 on Wednesday.
ABOUT THE
Southwestern Invitational
54-hole men's college tournament with team (best
four
scores of five players) and individual competitions.
The
Southwestern Invitational is the combination of two
previously existing
tournaments: the Southwestern Intercollegiate
(started by USC in 1978) and the Jones Invitational
(hosted by Pepperdine since
2014).
View Complete Tournament Information