Du Toit Helps Sun Devils Earn Spot In NCAA Championship

Kimberley's Jared du Toit And His Arizona State Sun Devils Are Off To Eugene, Oregon For The NCAA Finals May 27 - June 1st - Image Courtesy ASU Athletics

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

B.C. Amateur champion Jared du Toit is off to the NCAA Championship tourney in Eugene, Ore. Du Toit helped lead the Arizona State Sun Devils to a first-place finish at a NCAA regional tourney in Albuquerque, N.M. on Wednesday.

Du Toit, a Kimberley resident who is completing his junior year and won last year’s B.C. Amateur at Fairview Mountain in Oliver, shot rounds of 72, 73 and 75 to finish in a tie for fifth place at four-over par. The Sun Devils posted a 54-hole team score of 12-over par to beat the field by 12 shots.

The 7,555-yard University of New Mexico Championship Course played extremely tough. Seven of the 18 holes at the high-altitude course played longer than 500 yards. Du Toit’s teammate Jon Rahm -- the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur -- was the only player in the field to finish under par. Rahm finished at four-under par.

While du Toit punched his ticket to the NCAA Finals on Wednesday, B.C. Junior champion Jake Scarrow narrowly missed advancing. Scarrow’s Idaho Vandals finished sixth at another regional tourney at Blackwolf Run’s Meadow Valley Course in Kohler, Wis. The top five teams advanced and Idaho was overtaken by Baylor University, which shot the day’s best score on Wednesday and edged Idaho by six shots.

Scarrow, who won last summer’s B.C. Junior Boys tourney at Osoyoos Golf Club and is completing his freshman year at Idaho, shot his team’s best score on Wednesday, a three-under 69. After opening the 54-hole event with rounds of 73 and 74, Scarrow finished tied for 21st at even par.

Surrey’s Ian Kim, who is also a member of the Idaho team, fired a three-over 75 on Wednesday and finished tied for 68th at 12-over. At another regional tournament in Stillwater, Okla., Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald helped the Purdue Boilermakers finish fifth and earn a spot in the NCAA Championship. Macdonald, a senior who plays out of Point Grey Golf & Country Club, tied for 53rd place at 24-over par. 

The University of Washington missed advancing by one shot at a regional tourney in Franklin, Tenn. Kevin Kwon of Pitt Meadows and Vancouver’s Jordan Lu, the two B.C. members of the Huskies, were not on the playing roster for the regional tournament.

The NCAA Championship tourney goes May 27-June 1 at Eugene Country Club in Oregon.