Arizona State men’s golf falls short vs Mississippi at NCAA Tournament

• The match went into a playoff, with Ole Miss ultimately winning on the 21st hole.
• This was the final tournament for ASU seniors Preston Summerhays and Josele Ballester, who are moving on to professional golf.

CARLSBAD, Calif. – In what was one of the most closely contested matchups of the NCAA Division I men’s golf championship, Arizona State lost its final round to Ole Miss in match play quarterfinal action Tuesday, May 27.

The first round of match play came down to a three-hole playoff between ASU’s Michael Mjaaseth and Mississippi’s Tom Fischer. Fischer came back from trailing four holes to tying the match on 17 and ultimately sealing the win on the 21st hole of the round.

It was an emotional day for both teams, full of ups and downs with very few in-betweens. While Mjaaseth made one of the most crucial shots of his career when he holed out from 60 yards on the second playoff hole, it still wasn’t enough to stave off an Ole Miss win.

“I think Mike’s taking it hard, and that’s hard to see,” ASU coach Matt Thurmond said. “But I think seeing the way the team is there for him and supporting him makes me really proud of who we are and what we are.”

Thurmond shared much of the responsibility of shepherding this team through the season with assistant coach Thomas Sutton, who joined the program in 2022.

For Sutton, today’s loss brings with it an amalgam of emotions, considering he had joined the team at roughly the same time as the upperclassmen. They’ve grown together, they’ve won together, and, unfortunately for the Sun Devils, they lost together.

“When you’ve been here for three years and you’re day in, day out running practices and sometimes recruiting them, it makes moments like this hurt worse, because you know how much blood, sweat and tears they’ve put into this,” Sutton said.

Sutton spent much of the tournament on the par 3 holes, offering the players a space to ask questions, seek advice and simply vent some of their frustration. 

And don’t let anybody fool you: Golf can be an incredibly frustrating game. 

“It’s kind of a time to check in and see how they’re doing,” Sutton said. “Some day they need to air some frustration, some days they need a pick-me-up, sometimes they just want to talk about something other than golf, so it’s a cool moment for me.”

This will be the team’s last tournament together, as seniors Preston Summerhays and Josele Ballester move on to their professional careers, and underclassmen including Connor Williams and Pongsapak Laopakdee redirect their focus toward next season.

It’s a careful balancing act for a coach when the season comes to an end. Thurmond said that while the team has one more night together, they’ll all need to move on, just as life does.

“That’s the great thing about golf, there is always another round, another opportunity,” Thurmond said.

“You put yourself out there, play as hard as you can and hope the results end how you want them, but in golf, you only win occasionally, so it usually ends like this.”

While change is a certainty at the end of a college sports season, this Sun Devils golf team will always have one thing that’s the same: an unforgettable season playing together.