CSU Quickly Back On Course At ASU Thunderbird Intercollegiate April 16-17

Tournament: ASU Thunderbird Intercollegiate
Dates: April 16-17, 2021
Host: Arizona State University
Location: Phoenix, Ariz.
Course: Papago Golf Course
Course Par/Yardage: Par 71 / 7,319 yds
Host Web Site: http://thesundevils.com
Live Scoring: https://csura.ms/3mO5yOe
Tournament Field (15): Colorado State, Arizona, Baylor, Iowa State, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, South Florida, Texas Tech, TCU, UCLA, UNLV, Utah

Next on the Tee: Colorado State is continuing its busy week, playing in the Arizona State Thunderbird Intercollegiate for the 11th time in program history. The two-day, 54-hole tournament is being played at Papago Golf Course in Phoenix, Ariz.

Lineup for the ASU Thunderbird Intercollegiate: The Rams are in the play-five, count-four event this week at Papago Golf Course. For CSU, the lineup will be:
1.      Parathakorn Suyasri
2.      AJ Ott
3.     Davis Bryant
4.     Jack Ainscough
5.     Rasmus Hjelm

ASU Thunderbird Intercollegiate (CSU All-Time Results)
Dates                     Place/Teams            Scores (vs. Par)
4/15-16/2000           16th/17          302-297-292=891 (+27)
4/8-9/2005              t-7th/15        285-289-302=876 (+24)
4/8-9/2006             9th/16            283-297-283=863 (+11)
4/11-13/2008             t-3rd/16          280-288-291=859 (+7)
4/10-11/2009            8th/17           290-292-283=865 (+13)
4/9-10/2011              t-10th/13        285-289-297=871 (+19)
4/6-7/2012               14th/17         294-309-288=891 (+39)
3/21-23/2014            t-12th/15       287-292-300=879 (+27)
3/18-19/2017             7th/16             276-274-298=848 (-4)
4/14-15/2018             7th/17            277-290-288=855 (+3)

Last Time Out: Colorado State finished 10th at the 74th Annual Western Intercollegiate Presented by Topgolf Wednesday. The three-day, 54-hole event, hosted by San Jose State, was played at Pasatiempo Golf Club (Par 70 – 6,615 yards) in Santa Cruz, Calif.
       In this historic tournament that is a unique play-six, count-five event, the Rams started their day off on No. 10 and posted a 14-over 364 to finish at 55-over 1105. No. 7 Pepperdine posted the tournament's best round with a 6-under 344 to finish at 4-under 1046, 11 shots ahead of runner-up Stanford at 7-over 1057. San Diego State was third at 20-over 1070, with Washington at 24-over 1074 and BYU at 27-over 1077 rounding out the top five teams.
       Davis Bryant was the top Ram in the event, shooting a team tournament-best 1-under 69 in the final round to tie for 40th at 9-over 219. AJ Ott tied for 53rd at 11-over 221, with Jack Ainscough one shot back in a tie for 56th at 12-over 222, which included a 1-over 71 in the final 18. Rasmus Hjelm tied for 61st at 14-over 224, while Parathakorn Suyasri tied for 67th at 16-over 226. Gunnar Broin was the final CSU player in 73rd at 19-over 229. Pepperdine's Joe Highsmith took home medalist honors after winning a three-way playoff on the fourth playoff hole.

Fast Five On the 2020-21 Season:
This is the fifth team tournament of the season for the Rams.
Senior AJ Ott returned and has taken home his first and second individual titles in his first two events while earning back-to-back Mountain West Golfer of the Week honors. Not only was he named Golfweek National Player of the Week but enters this week as the top-ranked men's golfer in the nation on Golfstat's individual rankings.
The wins by AJ Ott were the 30th and 31st individual titles won by a CSU player in the modern era (since 1991-92).
Five Rams (Suyasri, Bryant, Ott, Jack Ainscough and Oscar Teiffel) are all in the top 15 in career scoring at CSU.
Head coach Christian Newton now has 11 tournament victories in his eight years as leader of the Rams.

Last Time at ASU Thunderbird Intercollegiate in April 2018:
       Colorado State put together its best round of the tourThe Colorado State men's golf team finished seventh at the 2018 ASU Thunderbird Invitational, April 14-15. The two-day, 54-hole event, hosted by Arizona State University, was played at Karsten Golf Course (Par 71 – 7,032 yards) in Tempe, Ariz.
       The No. 44 Rams battled on the final day to hold it together, including finishing with four birdies to three bogeys on the final three holes, to post a 4-over 288 and finish at 3-over 855 in seventh. Host No. 25 Arizona State won the team title at 22-under 830, defeating No. 27 UNLV by one shot at 21-under 831. No. 3 Oklahoma was third at 19-under 833, with No. 1 Oklahoma State shooting the top round of the day at 14-under to move up to fourth at 17-under 835. No. 32 Arizona was fifth at 14-under 838, with all six teams ahead of CSU in the final standings also ranked in the top 32 nationally. CSU did defeat Pac-12 schools Colorado, Oregon State, Utah and Washington State in the event, finishing the regular season with a 3-1 head-to-head record over the in-state rival Buffaloes.
       CSU was led by junior Jake Staiano in a tie for 19th at 1-under 212. For Staiano, it was his first top-20 finish of the spring and fourth this season. Freshman Parathakorn Suyasri was next in a tie for 34th at 3-over 216. Freshman Jack Ainscough and sophomore AJ Ott tied for 43rd at 5-over 218, with Ainscough posting a team-best 1-under 69 in the final round, including a 3-under in his final nine holes. Senior Max Oelfke completed the Rams' play one shot back at 6-over, tied for 46th.

On the World Stage: Five Rams on the current roster are ranked among the top 1000 players in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings, as of April 7, The rankings are based on their average performance in selected counting events over the past two calendar years.
Player                                     WAGR
AJ Ott                                      89
Parathakorn Suyasri                119
Davis Bryant                             412
Jack Ainscough                        663
Oscar Teiffel                             956

Individual National Rankings: Colorado State's success on the course is due to the entire lineup, as several golfers are ranked significantly in the key NCAA Division I metrics. This year, the top Ram is senior AJ Ott, who is 25th according to Golfweek and 88th in Golfstat.

Military Tribute Bag Continues: In 2020-21, CSU is continuing its tradition of honoring those who have served our country through the military. This year, the program is again recognizing U.S. Army veteran Charles W. Williamson III, due to the shortened season in 2019-20.
       Williamson served almost 17 years on active duty before medically retiring as a Sergeant First Class in 2007. He was part of a tank effort in Operation Desert Storm and through his first nine years of service, he was an Armor Crewman and held every position on a tank, including tank commander. During his military career, he also served as a Platoon Sergeant and Head Cadre, the instructor for the Individual Readiness Training for Bosnia rotations. He also served as a recruiter for the Army, retiring as Commander of a six-man recruiting station. From his service, he received numerous awards, bages, ribbons and commendations, including for meritorius service, His daughter Katelyn is a senior at CSU and is a Folds of Honor Scholarship recipient studying bio-medical sciences.
       The bag was carried by the top CSU finisher from the previous tournament during the 2019-20 season. Davis Bryant earned the honor after winning the qualifying event for the first week's Capital Carpet Collegiate at Georgia Tech, Sept. 6-8. Five different Rams carried the bag during the 2018-19 season. However this year, senior AJ Ott will carry the bag the entire season due to CoVID protocols.
       Last year, the military tribute bag debuted, honoring former golfer and late U.S. Army veteran James "Jerry" Jackson. Jackson had served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, eventually passing away from lasting effects from exposure to Agent Orange from his service.

2019-20 Tournament                         Player Carrying                Finish
Carpet Capital Collegiate                    Davis Bryant                     t-18th
Ram Masters Invitational                     AJ Ott                               t-2nd
Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate      AJ Ott                               t-7th
Saint Mary's Invitational                      Parathakorn Suyasri         t-3rd
Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate          Davis Bryant                     t-31st
Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic          Davis Bryant                     t-5th

Newton Named to GCAA National Advisory Board
Head coach Christian Newton was named to the Golf Coaches Association of America National Advisory Board, effective July 1, 2020. This is the first time that a CSU coach has been named to this prestigious position.
Newton was elected by his fellow coaches at the GCAA National Convention in December of 2019 and will become the Third Vice President on July 1, 2020.
It is a 10-year commitment, where every two years he will move up the ranks after each President's term is up. He will become the Second Vice President from 2022-24, First Vice President from 2024-26 before becoming President in 2026-28. Following that, he will serve a two-year stint as the Past President from 2028-30.

All-Americans and Other Awards in 2019-20:
The Rams reeled in numerous awards for their outstanding work on and off the course in 2019-20.
PING Honorable Mention All-Americans: Davis Bryant and AJ Ott (4th & 5th in CSU history)
GCAA All-West Region: Davis Bryant, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri
All-Mountain West: Davis Bryant, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri
GCAA All-America Scholars: Andrew Lafferty, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri, Oscar Teiffel
Academic All-Mountain West: Jack Ainscough, Andrew Lafferty, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri, Oscar Teiffel
GCAA All-Academic Team: Colorado State (Eighth consecutive year)

More Tap-In Putts On CSU in 2019-20:
Last season, the Rams against schools from the various conferences are:
Mountain West – 12-1
Pac-12 – 8-2 (43-32-1 over last three years)
Big Ten – 1-0 (8-0 over last three years)
Southeastern Conference (SEC) – 6-3
Atlantic Coast Conference – 1-1-1
The Rams finished in the top five in four of their six events this year, holding a 78-15-2 head-to-head record.
CSU had one individual win, eight top-five, nine top-10 and 14 top-20 finishes in just six events.
Sophomore Davis Bryant posted par or better scores in 12 of his last 14 rounds as he posted his third top-5 finish of the year and his collegiate career.
Junior AJ Ott posted 11 of his 17 rounds at par or better last year
After a slow start in the opening tournament, junior Parathakorn Suyasri finished in the top five of three of his next five and top-25 in all five tournaments (T-5, 1st, T-3, T-21, T-24)

Making A Mark Nationally: The Rams made their presence known on the national scene the last two years, finishing No. 41 in the nation according to the Golfweek ratings & No. 45 according to Golfstat's ratings in 2017-18 and ranked No. 41 according to Golfstat and No. 43 by Golfweek last season. Utilizing Golfstat, CSU was the top-ranked Division I golf team in the state and second in the Mountain West behind UNLV.
       Within the region in 2018-19, CSU recorded a 84-28-1 head-to-head record with an 18-12-1 record against Pac-12 schools and 26-11 versus the Mountain West, which had five teams in the Regionals for the first time since 2012 (#27 UNLV, #41 CSU, #49 Nevada, #58 San Jose State and #70 New Mexico).
       In 2019-20, the Rams were a stellar 46-5-1 against West region teams and 78-15-2 overall in head-to-head matchups. Against top-25 teams, the Rams finished 7-5-2 overall (.571). Finishing 21st in team scoring versus par this year, CSU ended the season as the top team in the state (by 58 places over Colorado in second and 79 over Denver in third) and Mountain West (nine places ahead of San Diego State) and fourth in the West region.
       This season, the Rams enter their schedule receiving votes in the GCAA Coaches Poll.

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 this season, Newton's teams moved to a 62.9 percent winning record in his eight years according to Golfstat. Newton moved ahead of both Jamie Bermel (1994-99 - 62.1 percent) Mark Crabtree (1994-99 - 57.0 percent) and Newton has 11 career CSU team tournament titles to Crabtree's five.
       As a team in 2018-19, the Rams were ranked #5 in the region in scoring versus par at +0.27 per round. This season, the Rams were #7 at -1.61 per round.

Bryant Named CGA Player of the Year: Colorado State men's golf continues to make its impact on the state's golf scene, as sophomore Davis Bryant was named the 2019 Colorado Golf Association Les Fowler Player of the Year as the state's top amateur golfer, the organization announced. He is the third straight CSU golfer to earn the award as former Ram Jake Staiano took home the award in 2017 and current senior AJ Ott won the award in 2018.
       Bryant won the honor in part from his title in winning the CGA Amateur at Lakewood Country Club this past summer in his first time in competing in the championship. He also finished second among the amateurs (to Ott) at the CoBank Colorado Open. In addition, Bryant advanced to the round of 16 at the CGA Match Play and eventually finished atop the CGA Player of the Year standings.

Ram on Tour: Former Colorado State standout Martin Laird, a PGA tour veteran, has made a statement already in the 2021 season with his fourth career victory on tour, a playoff win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. This was his second in in the event as he also captured the title in 2009.
       So far, he has made the cut in eight events, with the win and a tie for 17th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions as his top finishes. He has earned $1.53 million this season after the 2020 season was halted due to the pandemic. In 2019, his efforts during the regular season earned him a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs for the 10th time in 12 seasons.
       For his career, he has surpassed $19.28 million in official PGA Tour winnings and made the cut in almost two-thirds of his 313 PGA Tour starts in his 13-plus years on the top golf tour. Laird was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 2017.

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