IU starters bring continuity

Although golf is generally thought of as a solo sport with individuals such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and others competing professionally weekend after weekend, college golf revolves around the team concept.

Each year, the 12 IU men’s golf team members battle it out during a multi-event summer qualifying event to determine the top five golfers who will compete week-in and week-out as a team during tournament play.

“You want those people with the experience and knowledge of what it takes to play at the level you’re playing at, so starting out with freshmen is very difficult to do,” IU Coach Mike Mayer said.

Seniors Brant Peaper and Corey Ziedonis, along with junior David Mills, are holdovers from last season’s No. 33-ranked squad. It is their leadership Mayer said he hopes will help develop some of the younger talent.

“You want that stability with the people that know what it takes, know how to do it and have been successful doing it before,” Mayer said. “Success can permeate throughout the team if those three lead in the proper way.”

Stability is what Mayer has with Peaper, Ziedonis and Mills, as they have 280 rounds of golf as Hoosiers between them, most of them as part of the starting five.

During his time at IU, Mills has been the Hoosiers’ “iron man”. He has started each event on the schedule since coming to Bloomington, a streak of 79 rounds in 26 collegiate events, and Mills said he knows that experience is a key for success.

“It helps to have some experience on a course,” Mills said. “You know the layout better, and that makes you more comfortable.”

After missing three of the first five events scheduled during his freshmen year, Peaper has been a starter for 32 events, 98 rounds of golf in a row.

“Playing for the team is something bigger than yourself,” Peaper said. “You are fighting for every stroke for your team members, not just for yourself.”

Each of the three men rank in the top 35 all-time in rounds played at IU: Peaper has played 104 rounds (18th), Ziedonis 97 (20th) and Mills 79 (34th). With 21 rounds of golf remaining in the season, not including NCAA tournament play, each will move up the list, barring any injury or illness that would keep them out of the lineup.

Mills has the potential to break into the top 10 if he continues his streak during the rest of his junior and senior years and makes deep runs into the NCAA tournaments.

“(Mills) came in here with the utmost confidence and obviously the ability — a great junior player at the national level,” Mayer said. “He is an unbelievably talented player who is playing a game that is extremely mental and extremely frustrating. I don’t look for him to ever miss a tournament.”

It is not just about playing so many rounds of golf for these three leaders, though. They said it is about producing well to keep their spot on the team. During the past four years, at least one of them has been a part of nine tournament team wins.

“It is certainly individual, but playing for a team, you have an Indiana University golf bag, you are wearing the clothes and it feels like a team atmosphere when you are out there,” Ziedonis said. “You have four guys that have your back if you don’t play well, and I just think that if we all know we have each others’ back, then it makes it a lot easier to play.”

Ziedonis knew what it was going to take to compete for playing time at IU two years before getting to Bloomington, having faced former Hoosier Chase Wright as a junior during the IHSAA state golf championship in 2008, defeating Wright in a playoff to take the title.

“What drove me more was being at home while the other guys were competing,“ Ziedonis said. “You do get the taste of starting, but it is worse to not be on the team.”

Peaper is the only one of the three who has won individual titles as a Hoosier, and he recognizes the difference between winning by himself and winning as a team.

“It is always nice to win by yourself,” Peaper said. “Individual wins are really rare, but I think it is better (to win as a team) because you feel the teamwork and camaraderie.”