Golfers fly to Florida for final fall tourney

The Renaissance Invitational will mark the sixth and final tournament for the IU men’s golf team this fall. The Invitational begins Sunday and will be played in Naples, Fla.

The tournament, in its inaugural year, will be run by Xavier University.

“As always is the case, the weather will dictate how playable or unplayable the course will play,” IU coach Mike Mayer said. “On the surface it looks like it will be a midrange course with some low numbers.”

The Hoosiers will face a field of 12 teams, with IU being the only school playing in one of the six major conferences in college golf.

It will be a welcoming break for the Hoosiers, as they have played the No. 20-ranked schedule in the nation.

“It’s a mid-major field, and it was our plan to end the fall with a tournament that we might be a little more comfortable at and be able to go down there and get some wins,” Mayer said.

For the sixth straight tournament of the fall, the top three players will remain unchanged, with senior Alex Martin and sophomores David Erdy and Chase Wright occupying those spots.

Martin said the next three or four tournaments will go a long way in deciding the NCAA fate of the Hoosiers.

“Hopefully, we can go down there and play some solid golf and get some wins out of it,” Martin said.

The four and five spots will be rounded out by freshmen Brant Peaper and Corey Ziedonis.

For Peaper, the trip will be a homecoming trip, as his hometown of Tequesta is a little less than a three-hour drive from Naples.

“Brant is going back home, and he is very familiar with the turf grass down there and he should be very comfortable.” Mayer said. “We are kind of looking for that breakout event out for Brant, and we feel this could be that event.”

The Hoosiers have struggled in their last four events with finishes of 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th in tournaments that each had 15 teams in the field.

A third-place finish to start the year at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate is the highest finish of the year for the Hoosiers and is a result they will be looking to duplicate this weekend.

“At some point we are going to have to start stepping up, and we want to start stepping up this weekend,” Mayer said.  “We feel like we have tournaments in the spring where we can get wins, but we want to close out the fall on a good note.”