Top teams tee off near Seattle

The IU men’s golf team will head to the Pacific Northwest this weekend to take part in the Ping/Golfweek Invitational at Olympic Course at Gold Mountain in Bremerton, Wash. 

The Hoosiers are coming off a 13th-place finish at the Olympia Fields Invitational last weekend and will face another loaded field in Washington.

The Invitational has a field consisting of the top 15 teams in the nation from last year’s Golfweek rankings and is known as the fall preview for the NCAA Championships.

“It’s another world-class field, and we want to play against the best,” IU coach Mike Mayer said. “I think we will be a little more prepared to play (than Olympia Fields), but just to be invited to this tournament is a tremendous honor.”

The lineup for the Hoosiers will look the same in the first three spots. Senior Alex Martin, sophomore David Erdy and sophomore Chase Wright will play at the top of the lineup for the third straight tournament.

The four and five spots will change for the third straight week for the Hoosiers. Freshman Brant Peaper will play number four after a 69th place finish at Olympia Fields last week.

Redshirt freshman Andrew Frandsen will make his Hoosiers debut this weekend in the five spot.

“One of our goals this fall was we wanted to give a lot of people a chance to play, and we are accomplishing that goal, but, at the same time, we are hoping for some better play out of those spots,” Mayer said.

In college golf, each team plays five people and counts the best four scores for a team score. Erdy, Martin and Wright have each had their score count toward the team total in all six rounds played this fall.

The Hoosiers will be looking for more consistency out of the four and five spots to take the pressure off the top three.

“Chase, David and I need to be consistently low, and if we would get a low round between the four and five spot every couple of rounds, that would be huge for the team,” Martin said.