IU hosts 1st invitational since 2003 season

The No. 18 IU men’s golf team will host the adidas Hoosier Invitational this weekend at the IU Golf Course as the Hoosiers try to capture their second consecutive first-place finish. \nEach team will play 36 holes Saturday and will finish by playing 18 holes Sunday. Rival Purdue will be on the course this weekend, giving the Hoosiers even more incentive to win.\nIU coach Mike Mayer said he thinks facing Purdue first is important, but the team must look at the bigger picture of the entire invitational.\n“If you are Indiana, you always want to beat Purdue more than any other team,” Mayer said, “but there are 15 other teams in the field and we want to beat each and every other one.”\nJunior Jorge Campillo said playing in Bloomington will be to the Hoosiers’ advantage.\n“Obviously, we’ll have an advantage – we play here every day and we know the weather,” Campillo said.\nWhen asked about the threat of Purdue, Campillo confidently said he knows IU will prevail against its rivals.\n“I’ll guarantee we’ll beat Purdue, 100 percent,” Campillo said. “We’re never scared when facing them.” \nIU is coming off a first-place finish in the Pinehurst Intercollegiate with a 24-shot victory. Led by junior Seth Brandon and his individual first-place finish, all five Hoosiers finished in the individual top 10. Brandon received the Big Ten Golfer of the Week award for his dominant performance. Campillo was the last Hoosier to receive this award. He got it last season after a strong performance at the same tournament.\n“Seth worked hard for Pinehurst; there were 100 players he had to beat,” Mayer said. “He put himself in position to win and played well down \nthe stretch.”\nBrandon, who is coming off his second career first-place finish, said that every time the team goes out, winning the whole tournament is the main focus.\n“For Pinehurst, I’m happy for the win and the team,” Brandon said. “Every time we tee up we feel like we should win. We put victory in our mind because there would be no reason to go out there if we didn’t.”\nTeams will tee off at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday. The last time the Hoosiers held an invitational was Sept. 27-28, 2003, when they won the team title by 33 shots. This is the only home event for the Hoosiers this season.\n“In collegiate golf, any team can win on any given day,” Mayer said. “We have to come prepared.”