Arizona State freshman Jon Rahm fell short in his bid to become ASU's seventh NCAA men's golf individual champion, finishing in a tie for second place after Thursday's third and final round at the Capital City Club's Crabapple Course.
Rahm, who grabbed the lead by shooting 9-under 61 in Tuesday's opening round, held a one-shot lead going into Thursday's play but was surpassed by California's Max Homa.
Homa had a round of 66 to finish at 9-under 201. Rahm's final round score of 71 gave him a three-round total of 204, tied with Florida State's Daniel Berger, Auburn's Dominic Bozzelli, Tennessee's Rick Lamb, UNLV's Kevn Penner and Texas' Brandon Stone.
Top-ranked California finished in first place in the stroke-play portion
of the team event at 16-under 824, six shots better than seventh-ranked
Georgia Tech. Alabama, Texas and Illinois also earned shots in the
match-play quarterfinals, which begin Friday.
ASU finished the round in a four-way tie for sixth place at 2-over 842. That put the Sun Devils into a playoff with New Mexico, Texas A&M and UNLV -- with three berths in the match-play portion of the team championship up for grabs among the four teams. The showdown was decided just before sundown, with the season ending for Texas A&M when the Aggies made a pair of bogeys on the first round of extra holes.
ASU, as the eighth-place team, will take on Cal in the quarterfinals, with the winner advancing to the semifinals the following day.
Spencer Lawson had ASU's best score on Thursday, an even-par 70 that left him at 1-over in the tournament and tied for 38th place.
Illinois golfer Thomas Pieters, the defending individual national champion, shot a final-round 71 and finished at 207, six strokes behind Homa. There has not been a repeat winner since ASU's Phil Mickelson in 1989 and 1990.
