It was a rough weekend for the WSU men’s golf team at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational.

Despite near-perfect conditions, the Cougars struggled throughout the two-day event en route to a three-round total of 33-over par and a 13th-place finish. Head Coach Garrett Clegg expressed disappointment in the results.

“It just wasn’t a good tournament for us,” Clegg said in a press release. “You have ups and downs at different times. Right now we’re down, and we played poorly.”

Arizona State’s Karsten Golf Course provided a fair share of ups and downs for the Cougars.

Redshirt Senior Sang Lee posted WSU’s the tournament, starting off Saturday’s round at 2-under par through the first 13 holes, and shooting an even 70 for the final round. Lee finished the weekend tied for 28th place with a 5-over, 215. Freshman Derek Bayley played well for the Cougars on Day 1, carding a 3-over, 143, on Friday. He finished with a score of 9-over and tied for 47th.

The best round for WSU was the second round on Friday afternoon. Lee, Bayley, Senior Michael Anderson, and Junior Bhurinat Songpaiboon combined to shoot a 5-over, 285. Both Bayley and Anderson shot an even 70 to jumpstart the 10-stroke improvement from the first round earlier in the day. Anderson concluded the weekend at 10-over par after three rounds, and tied for 52nd.

Clegg thought that his team wasn’t relaxed, especially during the first round on Friday.

“We were trying so hard to be perfect,” the WSU Head Coach said. “I think it hurt us that we were so concerned about making every shot great. Once the guys realized they were fighting themselves, everyone relaxed a bit and we played better. It’s a good learning experience for our guys to understand how that affects their game and learn from it.”

The Cougars closed the tournament 13 strokes ahead of last-place Wyoming (46-over 886) and 58 strokes behind the host school Arizona State, which won the tournament with a 25-under, 815.

Senior Charlie Mroz and Songpaiboon ended the weekend just one shot apart, with Mroz carding a 12-over 222 and Songpaiboon shooting a 13-over 223. Mroz’s performance was good enough to tie for 59th, while Songpaiboon tied for 64th.

Lee was a bright spot for WSU this weekend. He went even par on Par-3 holes for the weekend, and he carded a tournament-high 40 pars over 54 holes.

Coach Clegg has two weeks to help his players make necessary adjustments heading into the Hawkeye-Great River Entertainment Invitational. The tournament in Iowa City begins a week from Friday. It will be the last opportunity for the Cougars to compete before hosting the Pac-12 Championships starting April 27.

“We need to regroup and put some work in over these next couple weeks,” Clegg said. “We’ve got to work on a lot of things and get better.”

Reporting by Spencer Anderson