First Win At Arizona State A Huge Relief For du Toit
Kimberley, BC Product Jared du Toit Breaks Through With A Four-Stroke Victory After Nine Top-10 Finishes With The Sun Devils
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
With the clock ticking on his collegiate golf career, Kimberley’s Jared du Toit desperately wanted to win before he finished his senior year at Arizona State University.
He had come oh, so close. Du Toit had registered nine top 10s since transferring to ASU from the University of Idaho after his sophomore year, including a playoff loss at a tournament in Kona, Hawaii in early February.
The fact he hadn’t won as a Sun Devil wasn’t keeping du Toit awake at night, but it was definitely on his mind. So when that W finally came at The Prestige tourney in La Quinta, Calif., earlier this week, du Toit wasn’t about to pretend it wasn’t a big deal.
“It was good to finally get one under the belt at ASU,” a relieved du Toit said over the phone from Tempe. “I don’t know if anybody else was putting that pressure on me, but I was putting it on myself.”
It wasn’t like du Toit hadn’t won before. After all, he had three wins in his sophomore season at Idaho. But when he transferred to ASU, du Toit moved to a much bigger stage. This win, by four strokes over a field that had some big names in it, felt much bigger than his trio of victories at Idaho.
“Yeah, this was much different, just kind of magnitude-wise,” he said. “The field strength was big for me. Obviously at Idaho we were in a smaller (Big Sky) conference and the fields were not as strong. This week, playing well in a field with lots of solid golfers and showing that I could get it done with great players behind me was big.”
Du Toit, the 2015 B.C. Amateur champion, began his senior year last fall at ASU with big expectations and big shoes to fill. Last July, he thrilled Canadian golf fans with a tied for ninth-place finish at the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ont. That performance brought with it some additional pressure and expectations.
“Obviously confidence-wise it was big,” du Toit said. “But at times it was a negative because for a while there I was expecting a ton out of myself because I had a great week there.”
Du Toit was also succeeding Spaniard Jon Rahm -- now a regular on the PGA TOUR -- as Sun Devils team captain. All Rahm did at ASU was win nine times and capture back-to-back Ben Hogan Awards. “Being one of the top guys on the team I felt like I was expected to do a little bit more,” said du Toit, who has embraced the leadership role he inherited as team captain.
“I love it. Getting a little bit more pressure now is only going to help me down the road, so it's definitely a good position to be in. I'm happy being one of the guys expected to do something.”
Du Toit also got a new college coach for his senior year as former University of Washington coach Matt Thurmond replaced Tim Mickelson, who resigned to manage Rahm’s professional career.
“This is my fourth year of college golf and my third head coach,” du Toit said with a chuckle. “So I've definitely seen a lot of different coaching styles. I love every one of them in a certain way, but Matt has been awesome. He has come right in, has made a ton of positive changes to the program and the players love him. He's been a great coach and he hasn’t skipped a beat. He has stepped in and hit the ground running.”
Thurmond, for his part, has been delighted to have a senior like du Toit help him make the transition to a new team. “It is everything you need in a transition like that, you have a guy who can be your captain, that is going to be your best player and also can set the tone culturally for the type of people you want to be and the type of program you want to have,” Thurmond said.
“I have been most impressed with the quality of the person Jared is, the sincerity, the humility. He is just a real regular guy, gets along with everybody and does things right. He’s a good golfer, he can hit the white ball around and that’s great, but he’s the whole package. He’s just a really good person. I feel very, very fortunate to have Jared here.”
Du Toit said he drew on last summer’s clutch performance at the Canadian Open to help him secure the win at The Prestige tourney, which was held on the Greg Norman course at PGA West. He closed with a one-under 70 to finish the 54-hole event at nine-under par to beat runner-up Sam Burns of Louisiana State -- ranked third in the nation by Golfweek -- by four shots. Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, the world’s top-ranked amateur, was also in the field at The Prestige.
“When I felt a little nervous before the final round I just kind of reminded myself, you played well in a PGA TOUR event,” du Toit said. “I told myself these nerves are not nearly as big as they were last summer. Just having had that experience and knowing that my game can hold up under pressure was big.”
Du Toit, a member of Canada’s national amateur team and is currently ranked 19th in the world, joked that he did have one other big win earlier this year. In early January, he and Blair Hamilton, a former national team member, beat Abbotsford pros and PGA TOUR regulars Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin in a best-ball match at the TPC Scottsdale.
“It was only a nine-hole match and we finished in the dark,” du Toit said. “It was super late and we were playing best ball, the young bucks versus the old guys, and we made a putt on the last hole to beat them one-up. It was a big day.”
In the not too distant future, du Toit hopes to be competing against Hadwin and Taylor on the PGA TOUR. He plans to turn pro early this summer shortly after his collegiate golf career ends and he earns his marketing degree.
“Over the years the itch has grown and grown,” he said of a pro career that is now so close he can almost taste it. “ I feel like I am trying to do the right things and trying to develop good habits right now with great coaches, Matt Thurmond and (national team coach) Derek Ingram. I have a lot of good people around me to help take it to the next level. I am super excited to get going.”