Rams Travel To Arizona for ASU Thunderbird Invitational

Tournament: ASU Thunderbird Invitational
Date: April 14-15, 2018
Host: Arizona State University
Location: Tempe, Ariz.
Course: Karsten Golf Course
Course Par/Yardage: Par 71 / 7,032 yards
Host Web Site: http://www.thesundevils.com
Live Scoring: http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=14986
Tournament Field (17): Colorado State, Arizona State, Arizona, Baylor, Boise State, Colorado, Denver, Hawaii, New Mexico State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, UNLV, UC Irvine, Utah, Washington State, Wyoming

Next on the Tee: The Colorado State men's golf team will wrap up the regular season portion of the 2017-18 schedule at the 2018 ASU Thunderbird Invitational, April 14-15. The tournament will be played at Arizona State's Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.

Handicapping the Field: There are 17 teams in the field for the nationally-renowned ASU Thunderbird Invitational, with all but one ranked in the top 135 nationally according to Golfweek. Along with the Rams, currently ranked No. 41, are host Arizona State (#19), Oklahoma State (#1), Oklahoma (#4), Baylor (#10), UNLV (#25), Arizona (#35), Colorado (#43), Utah (#76), Wyoming (#77), Oregon State (#84), Washington St. (#103), Boise State (#114), Denver (#122), New Mexico St. (#128), UC-Irvine (#135) and Hawaii (#245).

Lineup for the ASU Thunderbird Invitational: The Rams are in the play-five, count-four event this week at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational. For CSU, the lineup will be:
1.   Max Oelfke
2.   AJ Ott
3.   Jack Ainscough
4.   Jake Staiano
5.   Parathakorn Suyasri
Ind.: Colton Yates, Cullen Plousha (Papago Ind. Tourn.)

CSU History at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational: CSU has been a regular participant in the ASU Thunderbird Invitational in recent history, having played in the event eight times in the last 12 years. Below is a quick recap of the Rams' finishes in those tournaments.
Year   Team Finish   Top Individual
2006   9th (283-297-283=863)   Zen Brown, t-32nd
2008   t-3rd (280-288-291=859)   Riley Arp, t-3rd
2009   8th (290-292-283=865)   Zen Brown, t-16th
2010   11th (294-287-276=857)   Zakhai Brown, t-16th
2011   t-10th (285-289-297=871)   Zakhai Brown, t-16th
2012   14th (294-309-288--891)   Zakhai Brown, t-48th
2014   t-12th (287-292-300=879)   Cameron Harrell, t-30th
2017   6th (276-274-298=848)   Jake Staiano, t-6th

Last Year at Arizona State: Colorado State stumbled in the final round and placed sixth at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational, March 18.
   Entering the final 18 in second place, the No. 66 Rams battled but could not find a team flow with no players under par on the day and shot a 14-over 298 in the final round to finish the tournament at 4-under 848. Host No. 26 Arizona State led from start to finish, shooting a 54-hole score of 41-under 811 to win by 20 shots over runner-up No. 16 UNLV at 21-under 831. Nevada and Washington tied for third at 6-under 846, with Iowa State in fifth at 5-under 847.
   Sophomore Jake Staiano recorded his third top-10 and fifth top-20 finish in eight events, tying for sixth at 7-under 206. His 65 in the second round was a career best en route to his career-low 54-hole score and under-par mark. Senior Blake Cannon was next in a tie for 27th at even-par 213, with junior Colton Yates one shot back at 1-over 214 in a tie for 37th. Junior Max Oelfke tied for 48th at 4-over 217, with freshman AJ Ott rounding out the team at 8-over 221, tied for 60th.

Individual National Rankings: Colorado State's success on the course is due to the entire lineup, as all five golfers are ranked significantly in the key NCAA Division I metrics. The Rams current rankings are:
Player   Golfweek   Golfstat
AJ Ott   180   178
Max Oelfke   205   197
Jack Ainscough   307   243
Parathakorn Suyarsi   355   339
Jake Staiano   359   326
Colton Yates   386   388

On the World Stage: All five Rams that played in the lineup in the fall are ranked among the top 3000 players in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings. The rankings are based on their average performance in selected counting events over the past two calendar years.
Player   WAGR
Jake Staiano   348
Max Oelfke   386
Parathakorn Suyasri   594
AJ Ott   729*
Colton Yates   791
Jack Ainscough   1747
(*just entered in last month of fall season)

On the CSU Career Chart: The current roster is etching their names on the CSU record book (since 1993-94).

Junior Jake Staiano continues to be among the best to have played at CSU so far in his career. His scoring average of 72.44 in 75 competitive rounds ranks fifth all-time.
He is one of six players in CSU history to have 50 percent or more of his collegiate rounds played at par or better.
Staiano has an all-time win percentage of 69.5 percent, currently eighth in CSU annals, while senior Max Oelfke ranks 13th in the category at 63.0 percent.
Oelfke has shown his ability to post quite a few under-par holes in his career. He is tied for first in career eagles with 21 in 117 rounds played. He also has 378 career birdies (an average of better than three per round), which is ninth.
Staiano also ranks on the eagles made chart with 10, tied for ninth.

Ott Racks Up First Career Top-5 Finish, Starting Strong: Sophomore AJ Ott posted his first collegiate top-5 and second top-10 finish of the year with a fourth at the Ram Masters Invitational, Sept. 18-19. The Fort Collins native previously tied for 10th at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational for his first collegiate career top 10. In his seven tournaments, he finishes include a tie for 10th, a fourth, tie for 16th and two ties for 20th, surpassing junior Jake Staiano with three top-20s this season. Ott leads the team with a 71.50 strokes per round average (+0.25) and has counted his score towards the team total 89.6 percent of the season (21.5 of 24 rounds).

Putting Together Top-10s This Season: In the early going, CSU is playing extremely solid golf, showing in the rankings. Sophomore AJ Ott has three top-16 placings, while senior Colton Yates and Max Oelfke each have two top-10 finishes so far on the year. Junior Jake Staiano and freshman Parathakorn Suyasri finished fifth and tied for eighth, respectively, at the Ram Masters Invitational, with Staiano having recorded three top-20s in four events. Suyasri also finished in a tie for eighth at Saint Mary's, Yates tying for 14th and Ott tying for 20th. Currently, the Rams have three top-five, 11 top-10 and 21 top-20 individual finishes so far this year.

Making A Mark Nationally: The Rams are making their presence known on the national scene this year. With four top-five finishes in the fall and solid placings in the top spring events, CSU is again among teams receiving votes this week in the Golf Coaches Association of America Poll. They are also ranked No. 41 in the nation according to the Golfweek ratings & No. 44 according to Golfstat's ratings.

Fall Accomplishments: The Rams had one of their most successful falls, with several notables:

In the fall schedule, CSU finished in the top five in all four fall events with three third top-threes and one tournament title (Ram Masters Invitational).
In the four tournaments of the fall, CSU defeated 22 teams that were represented either with teams or individuals in the NCAA Regionals last year. Of those, 14 were victories over regional teams with three over squads that advanced to the NCAA Championship.
CSU had six of their 12 team rounds in the fall that all four counting rounds come in at par or better.
The Rams shot 13-under 271 in the final round of the Saint Mary's Invitational, tying the best under-par round of the season (-13), is the second lowest 18-hole score of the year for the squad and ties for the ninth-lowest single round total in school history.
At Saint Mary's, Colorado State defeated 11 teams ranked in the top 103 (at the time of the event) according to Golfweek's rating system, which had the Rams ranked #18 entering the event. The only teams to finish ahead of the Rams were #30 Southern Cal and #14 Stanford.
In winning the Ram Masters Invitational, CSU shot a 12-under 268 in the opening round. That score is tied for the sixth lowest 18-hole total in program history.
Colorado State currently has a head-to-head mark of 90-38 (.703) on the season, far above the minimum .500 record for consideration for a NCAA Regional bid.

Showing the Growth: Under head coach Christian Newton, CSU continues to show growth on the national stage, as the Rams play a high-level schedule each year. With the performance so far this season, Newton's teams moved to a 59.2 percent winning record in his five-plus years according to Golfstat. Newton moved ahead of Mark Crabtree (1994-99) on the list at 57.0 percent and Newton has six career CSU team tournament titles to Crabtree's five.

Last Time on the Tee: The Colorado State men's golf team posted one of three under-par rounds in the final 18 and moved up to finish eighth at the 72nd Western Intercollegiate, April 7-8. The two-day, 54-hole tournament, hosted by the San Jose State University, was played at Pasatiempo Golf Club (Par 70 – 6,615 yards) in Santa Cruz, Calif.
   The Rams started the second day of play with six holes to play due to rain shortening the time available on the first day. CSU sat in 11th after 36 holes at 16-over 716 in this unique play-six, count-five event. In the final round, the Rams were one of just three teams to post an under-par round, finishing at 1-under 349 for the last 18 to post a 15-over 1065 to place eighth. With one of the strongest fields of the year with 12 teams ranked in the top 80 in the nation, North Carolina took home the team title at 14-under 1036, 10 shots ahead of runner-up California at 4-under 1046 as those two squads were the only ones to finish under par. San Diego State and Southern Cal tied for third at 2-over 1052, with Texas completing the top five teams at 4-over 1054.
    Individually, the Rams were led by senior Max Oelfke, who tied for 13th at 2-under 208. Oelfke posted all three rounds at par or better, including a 2-under 68 in the final round. Freshman AJ Ott posted the best round of the tournament for CSU, shooting a 4-under 66 in the last round to finish at 2-over 212, tied for 26th. Freshman Parathakorn Suyasri tied for 41st at 5-over 215, while junior Jake Staiano finished at 7-over 217, including a 3-under 67 in the second round, in a tie for 50th. Freshman Jack Ainscough was two shots back of his teammate at 9-over 219, tied for 58th, while senior Colton Yates tied for 62nd at 10-over 220. Arizona's George Cunningham, Oregon's Norman Xiong and Collin Morikawa of California tied for medalist honors at 10-under 200.
    "I'm very pleased with our play this week," head coach Christian Newton. "We got off to a real rough start the first six holes of the tournament and just kept battling. Overall, our mental toughness was excellent. The guys had the third-lowest round of the day. That's really good in this strong of a field. Max and AJ had awesome rounds today and I'm very happy for them."
(complete recap on page 7)

Staiano Named Top Colorado Amateur: Colorado State junior Jake Staiano has been named the Les Fowler Player of the Year by the Colorado Golf Association, the organization announced Nov. 20.
   "Being named player of the year definitely means a lot," Staiano said in a recent email. "Just to be in the category with some of the best players to come out of Colorado shows a lot about how far I have come in the past few years with my game. I definitely went through some hard times, but to get this award really shows my maturity through it all and how I was able to get through those times."
   Covering the 2017 calendar year, Staiano has been a standout for the Colorado State golf team, earning All-Mountain West honors at the end of the 2016-17 season and advancing to the NCAA Austin Regional as an individual. This fall, Staiano had led the Rams to a top-25 national ranking in all major national polls and ratings with the squad having top-five finishes in all four fall tournaments, including a victory in the Ram Masters Invitational. He is averaging 71.33 strokes per round with nine of 12 rounds at par or better and the top finish a fifth at the Ram Master Invitational.
   Playing as an individual amateur, Staiano was in the hunt for the title this year in the biggest tournament held annually in the state, the CoBank Colorado Open. He shared the lead after three holes of the final round, which is no small feat considering only two players (Gary Longfellow and Brian Guetz) have won the Colorado Open as amateurs. He ended up finishing eighth at 15-under-par for 72 holes, taking low-amateur honors by seven strokes. It was the best overall showing by an amateur at the Colorado Open since Cameron Harrell placed fifth in 2014.
   Elsewhere, Staiano qualified for the U.S. Amateur for the second time and advanced to Sectionals at U.S. Open qualifying. In the biggest CGA championships, Staiano placed second at the CGA Amateur and fell in the semifinals of the CGA Match Play to eventual champion Chris Korte.

Record Setting Event at Ram Masters: CSU had its name all over the Ram Masters Invitational record book during the 2017 event. As a team, the Rams set new records for lowest single-round score (-12, 268 in opening round), lowest 36-hole score (-12, 548) and lowest 54-hole score (-17, 823) in the tournament's history. The Rams' third round of 5-under 275 is also the fourth lowest in the tournament's annals. Individually, AJ Ott's 4-under 206 is tied for the sixth-lowest 54-hole score, while Jake Staiano's 3-under 207 is tied for ninth. Staiano's 4-under 66 in the first round is tied for the 10th lowest single-round score.

Ram on Tour: Former Colorado State standout Martin Laird, a PGA tour veteran, has had a solid 2018 season so far on the tour, currently with $517,380 in earnings and currently 100th in the FedEx Cup. He has made the cut in five of nine events played with two top 10s and three top 25s, with the best finish a tie for ninth at back-to-back tournaments in the Waste Management Phoenix Open at 13-under (Feb. 4) and Genesis Open at 7-under (Feb. 18). In 2017, his efforts during the regular season earned him a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs for the eighth time. For his career, he has now surpassed $16.15 million in winnings and made the cut in more than two-thirds of his PGA Tour starts in his 10-plus years on the top golf tour. Laird was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame this past fall.

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