Golfers look for successful finish in West Lafayette after 2 straight 3rd-place finishes

Five players from the IU men’s golf team take the fairways at each event. Weekly improvements are not only confined to the numbers on the scorecard.

Since returning to stroke-play competition, the Hoosiers have not earned a title, but senior co-captain Chase Wright said the team is improving.

“We’re getting caught up in the end result, but we just need to try to keep getting better and practice,” Wright said. “We are putting in the extra time and ready to compete.”

At both the NYX Hoosier Invitational and the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate, the squad placed third among 15 teams. The Hoosiers will look to take their first title of the spring season Saturday and Sunday at the Boilermaker Invitational in West Lafayette.

With only a few days between these three events, it is difficult to catch up, Wright said, but he and his teammates continue to look forward.

“We only have two or three days to practice, so we’re focusing on fine-tuning everything up to this point,” Wright said. “There’s no reason to change anything, no matter what the prior result was.”

IU will be among 15 teams competing in the event, including five Big Ten teams and six teams ranked in Golfstat’s top 40. Indiana is currently ranked 37th, according to Golfstat, and Kent State tops the field at 18th.

Despite a strong field, Wright said the team’s lineup has played the Kampen Course in the past. Purdue will play at its home course, which was designed by Pete Dye. Dye also designed the Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Ind., where the Hoosiers will play from April 27-29 for the Big Ten Championship.

“It helps that each of us has played the course before and are familiar with it,” Wright said. “We will be comfortable out there, and the weather is looking decent, so we just need to focus on playing our game.”

The Hoosiers’ most recent encounter with the Kampen Course was at the 2011 Big Ten Championship, during which Wright was the top finisher, tying for fifth.

This weekend’s lineup includes Wright, senior co-captain David Erdy, juniors Brant Peaper and Corey Ziedonis, as well as sophomore David Mills. The lineup is determined by the stroke averages among the team.

During the last two events, Erdy and Mills have placed among the top-10 spots. Erdy earned back-to-back seventh-place finishes at the NYX Hoosier Invitational and the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate.

Meanwhile, Mills led the squad at its home event with a third-place finish and tied with Erdy at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate.

Only a few events remain in the IU schedule, including the Boilermaker Invitational and the Big Ten Championship. With that in mind, Wright said he is trying to enjoy the last few events of his college career and play his game.

“I want to play the best I can and do a better job of managing my game,” Wright said. “I feel like I can play the best golf in my life — it just needs to happen. Everybody is capable of shooting low — they just need to feel it.”