Fore! Again! Men's Golf Has Four PING All-Americans

The 2024 Pac-12 champion Sun Devil men's golf program notched four PING GCAA All-Americans for the third time in the past four seasons, while Matt Thurmond earned his fourth GCAA West Region Coach of the Year honor in past seven seasons.

Wenyi Ding was announced as a first-team selection earlier and he is joined by third-team selections Ryggs Johnston and Preston Summerhays as well as honorable mention pick Josele Ballester. The program had four GCAA All-Americans in 2021 for the first time since 2009, and now has done the same in 2023 and in 2024. Matt Thurmond has had 10 All-Americans earn the honor 18 times in his eight seasons.

Thurmond guided Arizona State to the 2024 Pac-12 Championship, his fourth career Conference crown, fifth in league history behind Stan Wood (12), Randy Lein (10), Bud Finger (five) and Conrad Ray (five). ASU also recorded victories at the Cypress Point Classic match play event in the fall and the Cabo Collegiate and Thunderbird Collegiate in the spring.

ARIZONA STATE MEN'S GOLF ALL-AMERICANS UNDER MATT THURMOND
2024 (4): Wenyi Ding (first), Ryggs Johnston (third), Preston Summerhays (first), Josele Ballester (hm)
2023 (3): Preston Summerhays (first), Josele Ballester (hm), Michael Mjaaseth (hm)
2022 (4): Mason Andersen (third), Josele Ballester (hm), David Puig (hm), Cameron Sisk (hm)
2021 (4): David Puig (second), Chun An Yu (third), Ryggs Johnston (third), Cameron Sisk (hm)
2020 (1): Cameron Sisk (third)
2019 (1): Chun An Yu (first)
2017 (1): Jared du Toit (second)

FRESHMAN WENYI DING TAP-INS
Sun Devil freshman Wenyi Ding -- who earned both Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year -- earned first-team PING All-America honors as announced by the GCAA. Ding and Auburn's Jackson Koivun were the only freshman on the 11-man team, and he is just the fifth Sun Devil to earn first-team All-America in the past 17 seasons. He joins Preston Summerhays (2023), Chun An Yu (2019), Jon Rahm (2016 and 2015) and Max Rotluff (2015). He is the first Sun Devil freshman to earn first-team honors since Alejandro Canizares in 2003. He was the first Sun Devil to win both Pac-12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year and finished the year ranked third by Scoreboard/Clippd with a 69.56 stroke average. He notched six top-10 and four top-five finishes in eight tournaments, including a ridiculous victory at the Amer Ari Invitational in just his second event. He posted a 27-under 189 (63-64-62), the first collegiate golfer to break 190, and helped ASU to a trio of tournament titles this spring, including its first Pac-12 Championship  since 2008. He posted 12 rounds in the 60s and 16 of his 25 rounds were at par or better.

FINAL TAP IN FOR RYGGS JOHNSTON
Ryggs Johnston – who closed his career with four straight top-10 finishes -- finished his five years as a Sun Devil with third-team All-America honors in 2024, as he helped lead the Sun Devils to the 2024 Pac-12 title. Johnston also earned third-team honors in 2021, highlighted by his third-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The Montana native had 14 career top-10 finishes and earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors twice (2024 and 2021) and second-team honors in 2022. He became the second Sun Devil men's golfer to earn the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2022-23 as he graduated in May of 2023 with his management degree and a certificate in sports business and then earned ASU's Bill Kajikawa Award in 2023-24, given to a senior student-athlete based on academic excellence, athletic accomplishment, leadership and service in the community.
 
RYGGS JOHNSTON FINAL CAREER STATS
52 TOURNAMENTS
157 ROUNDS
71.42 STROKE AVERAGE
11,337 STROKES
44 ROUNDS IN 60S

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS TAP-INS
Summerhays notched PING GCAA All-American third-team honors in 2023-24 after earning first-team All-America 2022-23. He started the year with a win in the 72-player field at the Sahalee Players Championship in September and also has won back-to-back ASU Thunderbird Collegiate titles in 2023 and 2024, to go with top-10 finishes this year at the National Invitational in Tucson and the Cabo Collegiate (third). His season-best was a 6-under 66 at the National Invitational in the first round on Jan. 29, 2024, while his career low is a 10-under 62 at the 2023 NCAA Las Vegas Regional in the first round on May 15.

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS CAREER STATS
37 TOURNAMENTS
112 ROUNDS
71.85 STROKE AVERAGE
2,431 STROKES
43 ROUNDS IN 60S

JOSELE BALLESTER TAP-INS
Ballestter has now earned honorable mention All-America honors in each of his first three seasons, as in 2023-24 he had a 71.05 stroke average in 12 tournaments (36 rounds) that included four top-10 finishes. In 2022-23, he tied for fifth out of 72 at the Las Vegas Regional with a 15-under 201, tied for seventh out of 80 at the Thunderbird Collegiate and tied for fourth out of 45 at The Calusa Cup.

JOSELE BALLESTER CAREER BEST ROUNDS
64/-6 at Pac-12 Championships first round/April 28, 2023
64/-6 at Maui Jim Intercollegiate second round/Sept. 10, 2022
64/-7 at Thunderbird Collegiate first round/April 14, 2023

JOSELE BALLESTER CAREER STATS
33 TOURNAMENTS
100 ROUNDS
70.89 STROKE AVERAGE
7,089 STROKES
32 ROUNDS IN 60S

A LOOK AT THE 2024-25 SCHEDULE
The 2024-25 Sun Devil men's golf schedule is just about set. ASU will open the season Washington for the Sahalee Players Championship Sept. 7-8 and plans to close up shop in Carlsbad at the 2025 NCAA Championships.

2024-25 SUN DEVIL MEN'S GOLF SCHEDULE
Sept 7-8: The Sahalee Players Championship/Redmond, WA (Washington)
Sept. 20-22: Fighting Illini Invitational/Olympia Fields/Chicago, IL (Illinois)
Sept. 30-Oct. 1: Ben Hogan Collegiate/Colonial Country Club/Fort Worth, TX (TCU)
Oct. 7-9: Big 12 Match Play/The Clubs at Houston Oaks/Hockley, TX (Big 12)
Oct. 19-21: Williams Cup/Eagle Point Golf Club/Wilmington, NC (North Carolina)
Feb. 6-8: Amer Ari Invitational/Mauna Lani Golf Resortt/Waikoloa, HI (UH-Hilo)
Mar. 2-4: Cabo Collegiate/Twin Dolphin/Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Arkansas)
Mar. 17-18: Pauma Valley Invitational/Pauma Valley/Pauma Valley, CA (LMU)
Mar. 24-25: Valspar Invitational/Floridian/West Palm Beach, FL (Houston)
Mar. 31-April 1: Maridoe Invitational/Maridoe/Carrollton, TX (North Texas)
Apr. 11-12: ASU Thunderbird Collegiate/Papago Golf Club/Phoenix, AZ (Arizona State)
Apr. 22-24: Big 12 Championship/Southern Hills/Tulsa, OK
May 12-14: NCAA Regional/TBD
May 23-28: NCAA Championship/La Costa Resort/Carlsbad, CA

PAC-12 RECAP
Arizona State's final season in the Pac-12 produced something in the men's golf record books it hadn't done once -- and something the coach and program have done often. Wenyi Ding was the first Sun Devil to win both Pac-12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, while Matt Thurmond earned Coach of the Year for the fourth time (also in 2005, 2009 and 2019), tied with Stanford's Conrad Ray for second-most all-time to legendary ASU and USC mentor Randy Lein (seven). Beside Ding, Ryggs Johnston and Preston Summerhays also earned first-team honors, while Josele Ballester was a second-team pick. Connor Williams was an All-Freshman team honorable mention pick.
 
WHO HAS DONE THAT BEFORE?
Ding is the third to sweep the Pac-12 Player and Freshman of the Year awards in the same season, joining UCLA's Patrick Cantlay in 2011 and USC's Jamie Lovemark in 2007.

HOW MANY TIMES HAS A SPARKY DUDE DONE THAT?
Wenyi Ding is the 11th different Sun Devil to earn Conference Golfer of the Year, but the first since Niklas Lemke was co-recipient with Lovemark in 2007. However, he is the fifth consecutive Sun Devil and seventh all-time ASU recipient of the league's Freshman of the Year honor.