ASU and Grayhawk to host NCAA Golf Championships

By Justin Toscano

Sun Devil Athletics on Tuesday announced Arizona State University and Grayhawk Golf Club will host the 2020 through 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships in Scottsdale.

This partnership marks the first time a university and golf course will host the national golf championships for three consecutive years and it comes just weeks after ASU women’s golf won its NCAA record eighth national title.

“It says a lot about our community here that we’re ready to host a championship of this magnitude for three years straight, both the men’s and the women’s, so it’s really exciting for our programs,” said ASU women’s golf head coach Missy Farr-Kaye in a phone interview. “I’m hoping it’ll have a great impact on our teams and our future players to have an opportunity to compete.”

The Sun Devil women won their national title by defeating Northwestern in Sugar Grove, Ill. The Wildcats had “home-course” advantage at this year’s national championships and the Sun Devil men or women — or both — could do so from 2020-2022.

“I think that if you utilize it properly, it can be a great home-field advantage,” Farr-Kaye said. “The heat doesn’t bother us, we’re used to it, and we did a really good job managing the cold weather in Chicago. To have hometown crowds, you really get people excited about coming and watching collegiate golf. And of course, we want them to be biased and pulling for Arizona State.”

ASU senior Monica Vaughn won the women’s golf individual championship shortly before the team won the overall title. Including Vaughn, the Sun Devil women now have 10 individual national champions in program history.

Jon Rahm, whose stellar Sun Devil career ended in 2016, won his first PGA TOUR event when he made two eagles over the final six holes to capture victory at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Rahm, 22, became the youngest player to ever win the tournament and the first in 26 years to win his first PGA TOUR title at Torrey Pines.

Rahm may be the most recent, but ASU men’s golf has also churned out pros like Phil Mickelson, Matt Jones and Paul Casey.

ASU’s golf success speaks for itself with recruits, but Tuesday’s news may give prospective Sun Devil golfers something new and unique to envision.

“I hope it helps us recruiting, I really do. I think it really says a lot about the support here that we have as programs, our men’s and women’s teams,” Far-Kaye said. “It really communicates that to recruits, that we might be a large city, but we’re a small golf community and they really care about our teams at ASU.

“I think this is a great opportunity to have future Sun Devils see what the possibilities are and be excited to play for ASU in the future.”