Hoosiers finish 2nd at 2012 Big Ten Championships

Entering the Big Ten Men’s Golf Championship, the Hoosiers held high expectations. Fresh off a win at the Boilermaker Invitational, the lineup was set for the squad’s success.

After 54 holes of play at the Pete Dye Course of the French Lick Resort in French Lick, Ind., the squad was tied for second with Michigan State.

Once in the final round, the Hoosiers jumped to the top of the leaderboard at one point ahead of Illinois, but Illinois prevailed to take its fourth conference title.

IU Coach Mike Mayer said the close finish was hard for the team but the squad is continuing to move in the right direction.

“We have larger goals and aspirations than just finishing second at the Big Ten,” he said. “It’s tough to win in this conference, but that’s why we wanted do it.”

The entire lineup finished in the top 25 and was led by sophomore David Mills, who finished fourth. He started the tournament with a four-over-par 76 but continued to drop strokes from his scorecard. In the final round, Mills recorded a one-under-par 71, earning him status in the All-Championship Team.

“There were times this weekend when we played as well as any team I’ve associated with,” Mayer said. “The five players who were representing us were a special mix of kids, and I think we did what we needed to do to win the tournament. It was a hard one for all of us.”  

Senior co-Captain Chase Wright joined Mills in the top 10, posting 72-74-75-75 to tie for eighth place. Fellow senior co-Captain David Erdy finished two strokes back of Wright to tie for 12th with a 298 tournament total.

Competing at the par-72 Pete Dye Course, Mayer said the team handled the adversity of the course well.

“We had our ups and downs,” Mayer said. “The course will knock you down, but you have to get yourself back up, and we did that throughout the whole championship.”

With the men’s golf program moving in a winning direction, the Hoosiers will continue into the postseason with their fifth consecutive NCAA appearance from May 17-19.

“We’ve had a phenomenal run, and we made good efforts to finish it,” Mayer said. “We had a few bad breaks at the end, and that was it. We did everything we thought we could do to win it but just came up a little short.”