Healthy Hoosiers look to rebound

Men's golf coach Mike Mayer never coached a team that recorded a last place finish in a tournament.\nThat changed last weekend when Mayer's young team started slowly and never recovered, finishing last in the 17-team Kepler Intercollegiate at Ohio State's Scarlet Course.\n"Hopefully, it embarrasses them," Mayer said of the team's performance. "It embarrassed me as a coach. It gave us a little wake-up call. There were teams there that we never dreamt would beat us."\nA lineup change, a healthy sophomore Aldo Jordan and a few team meetings later, the Hoosiers hope to erase last week's disappointment this weekend when they compete Friday and Saturday in the FirstEnergy Intercollegiate in Ravenna, Ohio. The 54-hole tournament, sponsored by Kent State, will be contested on the par-70, 6,936-yard, course at Windmill Lakes Golf Club.\nIU's lineup this weekend will feature three players who didn't play in the Kepler -- Jordan and freshmen Kirk Wood and Ryan Cassidy. Jordan, IU's No. 2 player, stayed in Bloomington last weekend because of a viral infection. \nJordan had played in every tournament until the Kepler. His score has been kept for the team in each of his 25 rounds this season. Only once in more than 60 collegiate rounds has Jordan's score been thrown out.\n"I feel good about having Aldo in the lineup," Mayer said. "When you count every single round, you're contributing to the team. We missed Aldo far more than I thought we would. Nobody stepped up and recovered for Aldo."\nWhile Jordan is a collegiate veteran, Wood and Cassidy will both be competing in their second spring tournament this weekend. \n"It was hard for me to sit at home and have nothing to do with what was going on at Ohio State," said Wood, whose only spring appearance was in the Marshall Invitational, April 6-7. "I'm looking forward to helping the team and doing as much as I can."\nJoining Cassidy, Wood and Jordan this weekend will be senior Steve Wheatcroft and sophomore Mike Miller. Wheatcroft is the only Hoosier to compete in every spring tournament.\nThe lineup is the Hoosiers' sixth different look in six spring events. Typically, Mayer would stage a mid-week qualifier for the No. 3 to 5 spots. But poor weather and a lack of time between when the Hoosiers returned home Sunday and left for the FirstEnergy Wednesday forced Mayer into personally selecting this week's squad.\nMayer said he selected Miller because he was the team's second-best performer behind Wheatcroft at the Kepler. The work ethic of Cassidy and Wood earned the freshmen a chance to compete in the FirstEnergy.\n"The two freshmen that are going, without question, have the hardest work ethic on the team," Mayer said about Cassidy and Wood. "They work hard and they really want to play."\nWednesday, the Hoosiers had an optional afternoon practice, but Wood was on the practice range working on his swing. After hitting a bucket of balls, Wood moved to the putting green to fine tune his short game. \nThe team's daily practices are two hours, but almost every player practices longer than the allotted time. Wood said he spent 35 hours practicing last week.\n"Golf is the type of sport where two hours a day isn't going to cut it," he said. "The more you practice, the more you hope it will pay off"