Tournament gives opportunity to players with little playing time

A late addition to the IU men’s golf schedule will give four Hoosiers who have limited playing time a chance to showcase their skills at the 54-hole, two-day Earl Yestingsmeier Individual Collegiate Invitational Monday and Tuesday at Delaware Country Club in Muncie, Ind., sponsored by Ball State.

The tournament will be underway 9 a.m. Monday with a shotgun start.

Day one will include the first two rounds, and the final 18 holes will be contested Tuesday.

“It was a tournament we hoped we could get some players in, and we were able to get it done,” IU Coach Mike Mayer said. “We worked through compliance and worked through our academic team to make sure these guys could afford to miss school and go play.”

Assistant Coach Brian McCants will lead seniors Kyle Perry and John Beringer, along with sophomore Nicholas Grubnich and freshman Max Kollin, while Mayer and the rest of his team remains in Bloomington preparing for the upcoming tournament in Florida.

Mayer said he conducted a qualifying match with the six individuals who did not play at Olympia Fields in the Hoosiers’ last meet, with the exception of Michael McGee, who is out with an illness, to be fair in selecting the four participants.

“These kids worked hard, and they’ve worked tirelessly, and they have done what everybody else has done on a day-to-day basis,” Mayer said. “They have conditioning at 6:30 (a.m.) and practice every day as well as the study table requirements and academic requirements. That is why it pleases me to give them the opportunity to play.”

Mayer said he had hoped to give McGee course time in preparation for the final two events of the fall since he has been out with an illness for nearly a month, but Mayer felt giving the spot to one of McGee’s teammates was more important.

“We had that conversation briefly,” Mayer said. “We felt like it would take away an opportunity from someone else.”

Grubnich is the lone player among the four that has seen action this season. He played as an individual at Wolf Run, and he finished in a tie for 55th place.

Beringer and Perry both played in two events last season and have played a combined 39 rounds of college golf between them.

“These guys are players,” Mayer said. “They can play. They could be playing somewhere else, at a program not as strong as ours. This is part of what we try to do and give them the opportunity and reward them when they work hard and do the right thing.”

Mayer said a strong showing by one of these players might allow them to crack the lineup for one or both of the final events of the fall.

“I have four players picked to go to Isleworth: Peaper, Hugo, Corey and David Mills, and we are still looking for that fifth,” Mayer said. “That could come from anybody. You always want to dangle that carrot and give them something to work for.”