At -9, Ross Steelman continues to occupy the top of the leaderboard, picking up another shot over the field during Sunday’s third round of individual stroke-play. He fired a 2-under-par 68 to go along with 1-under 69 on Saturday and 6-under 64 on Friday.
“Obviously we just want to keep playing well, get in that top eight and make match play,” said Steelman during a post-round interview with Georgia Tech Athletics. “From there, it’s just go out and play more golf. You’ve just got to play against who you’re standing in front of. Individually, I just want to play as boring a round as possible. A lot of fairways and a lot of greens. Pars are going to be my friend. I just want to go out and have fun again. It’s going to be my last round of medal play in college golf, so just have fun with it.”
(GT Athletics images)
Heading into the final round of the individual championship, he sits four strokes ahead of two players tied for second place at -5 – Neal Shipley of Ohio State and North Carolina’s Dylan Menante – both of whom moved up three spots in the third round with a pair of 3-under 67s.
Led by Michael Mjaaseth’s sizzling 4-under 66, the Sun Devil’s moved up three spots on the team leaderboard with a 1-under-par performance that landed them in seventh place, comfortably within the 15-team cutline after 54 holes.
“I felt great,” Mjaaseth said to ASU Athletics. “Honestly, I felt great. I was hitting the ball great and just waiting for the putts to fall and they finally did today, I needed this. I think we’re in a good position. We’re on the bubble and I think that’s going to bring the best out of us tomorrow. We’re in a good spot.”
(Thomas Fernandez images)
The top 15 teams and nine individuals are now set for Monday’s final 18 holes (10am start) to crown the individual champion as well as determine the eight teams advancing to team match-play. Quarter and semifinal matches take place on Tuesday, and the team championship match tees off at 1:30 pm on Wednesday.
