Team finds stride as season winds down

After a week off following its first victory of the season, the IU men's golf team wrap up its fall season this week at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge starting today at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore. The Hoosiers, who won the Xavier Invitational two weeks ago on the strength of four top 20 performances and a 21 stroke margin of victory, believe they are playing at the top of their game.\n"We've had a good productive fall," said IU Coach Mike Mayer. "We've developed. We've improved, and we're a better team now than when we started the fall. That was our goal. I think we're ready for the challenge of the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge. It's probably our toughest tournament of the year and our best field of the year. It will give us a real good indication of where we stand."\nThe setup of the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge varies from most tournaments. Each conference will count its six lowest team scores each round. The conference with the lower score after three rounds will be declared the winner. But the tournament will still give the Hoosiers a way of measuring themselves against good competition.\nThe Hoosiers will be among some of the elite programs in the nation at Bandon Dunes. The 14 team field includes defending NCAA champion University of California-Berkeley and four teams that are in this week's Golfweek Magazine's Top 25 rankings. The Hoosiers just missed cracking the list and are ranked No. 27, but the team remains confident.\n"I think, everybody kind of got a taste of it this past week, and they really feel we're where we need to be to compete nationally," said senior Heath Peters. "I feel this last tournament was a big step, not only for me, but also the team."\nGoing into the final tournament of the fall, the Hoosiers will feature a lineup similar to the one that delivered the title at Xavier. Seniors Jeff Overton and Peters, juniors Brad Marek and Scott Siebert, and freshman Santiago Quirarte will compete for the Hoosiers. All were in the lineup at Xavier except Siebert. Siebert played as an individual at Xavier, but his tie for 18th place helped him claim a spot in the final fall lineup. The four top 20 finishers at Xavier is one of the main reasons the Hoosiers are so confident going into the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge.\n"I think the bottom three guys, I have a lot of confidence in," Overton said. "As they get more experience and learn to feed off of each other, I think the team will do even better things."\nThe Big Ten/Pac-10 challenge will begin at 8 a.m. PST today. The first two rounds will be played today with the final round played Tuesday. \n-- Contact staff writer Charlie Gillingham at cgilling@indiana.edu.