2020 Tournament - Round Three

When: March 3, 2020
What: 2020 Cabo Collegiate
Where: Cove Club (par 71, 6,807 yards) – Cabo Del Sol, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Rapid Recap and Scoring/Pairings: www.golfstat.com

Arizona State, led by a trio of 3-under-68s from David Puig, Cameron Sisk, and Ryggs Johnston passed in-state rival and 36-hole leader Arizona in blustery wind to take an 8-stroke victory at 20-under-par 832. Their third-round total of 274 was 10-under-par.

“The last two years, we had a chance to win and Oklahoma State beat us both times,” said Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond. “We are so excited to finally hold the trophy.”

The ASU counting scores by Johnston, a freshman from Libby, Mont.; Puig, a freshman from Spain; Sisk, a sophomore from San Diego, Calif., and the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019 were completed by a 1-under 70 from junior Mason Andersen, of Chandler, Ariz.

“That round today was beyond what I could have expected,” Thurmond said.

The Sun Devils, who were in third place through 36 holes, made an early move as Puig logged four birdies in his first six holes and Sisk was 3-under through two holes with a birdie-eagle start.

“It was huge for our team to have a couple of hot starts,” Sisk said. “It put us in a good position for the rest of the round. I didn’t really know where we were, but I knew it was a big boost for our team and me individually.”

Runner-up Texas A&M climbed six places on the strength of medalist Walker Lee’s 7-under 64 and Dan Erickson’s 69. The Aggies posted a Round 3 278 (6-under) and a 54-hole total of 840.

Lee, a junior from Houston, fired a bogey-free round that included a birdie-eagle finish on his last two holes for a 54-hole total of 205, one stroke better than Barclay Brown of Stanford and Johnny Keefer of Baylor. Lee, who played in the 2017 U.S. Open, made five birdies and the eagle in Round 3

“The strength of my game today was how smart I was,” Lee said. “There were a bunch of pins out there today that you couldn’t shoot at -- just play to the middle of the green and take your 20-footer and make your par and got to the next hole. Along with that, my irons were good today.”

Arizona State and Texas A&M were the only teams to break par in the windiest conditions of the three-day event.

Vanderbilt was third at 842 and Arizona, the leader through 36 holes, finished fourth at 847 and Baylor was fifth at 849.

***

Quotable

Coach J.T. Higgins, Texas A&M

• (on Walker Lee’s Rd. 3 64) “That is a great round in those conditions. The wind was howling. He brought his A game. It was amazing”
• “I think when the conditions get a little tough it’s in our favor. We are usually not that great when its perfect. We welcome the adversity and we’re pretty good in the wind. We get a lot of practice in it and we are probably more comfortable with it than other teams. We knew it was to our advantage.”

Walker Lee, Texas A&M

• “I’ve gotten a lot more patient in my tenure at A&M. When I first got here, I was not patient.”
• “This is my second biggest win. My first win was our home event. It’s tough to top that.”

Coach Matt Thurmond, Arizona State

• “When we got up this morning and the wind was whipping, we thought maybe because it’s an hour earlier and this does this every day, but we checked the wind report and it said 13-15 throughout the day. When we got to the course it was well over that. The guys were excited about it. They said: ‘This is what we need because there are a lot of teams bunched together.’ Things separate more when there are tough conditions. They were having fun on the driving range.”
• (On Puig and Sisk) “It was great jump start for us. We started on the same holes every day. To play the easier holes today with the heavy wind and get some good momentum was a good break for us.”
• “We are missing our top player Kevin Yu and we are better with him of course. But it was a special challenge for us. These are the guys who maybe people don’t know as much. They wanted to make sure they did their part.”
• “Every year we build our schedule around this event. Our guys get up for it. It’s a great field with teams from different parts of the country that we don’t see all the time. It’s an ultimate challenge for us.”

Cameron Sisk, Arizona State

• (on playing in the wind) “It’s not really something I am used to, but I like playing in the wind. The harder it gets, the better I play. It narrows your focus on every shot.”

Notable

• Arizona State finished fourth in 2018 and second in 2019 both times when Oklahoma State was the champion.
• Walker Lee’s 64 was the third in Round 3 in event history – the others were posted by Collin Morikawa of California (medalist in 2018) and Matthew Wolff of Oklahoma (in 2019). The only other 64 in competition history was fired by Stanford’s Barclay Brown in Round 2 Monday.
• Julian Perico of Arkansas holed a 140-yard 50-degree wedge shot for a double eagle 2 on the par-5 16th hole and finished with a 2-under 69.
• Dates of future Cabo Collegiate tournaments are Feb. 28-March 2, 2021 and Feb. 27-March 1, 2022

Communications official: Pete Kowalski: cell phone: 908-216-8435; pkowalski1524@gmail.com

Media Services Note

Link to photos: https://clients.dinogomez.com/cabo-collegiate-2020
Links to post-round Q&A videos:
Arizona State Coach Matt Thurmond - Winning team post round 3, final
Medalist Walker Lee of Texas A&M

Videos