Men's golf finishes 11th at Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational

The IU men’s golf team finished in 11th place this weekend at the Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational. The Hoosiers fell to defending-national champion No. 1 Alabama, who cruised to an 18-stroke victory.

IU Coach Mike Mayer said the 11th place finish is far from a disappointment.

“This was a world-class field,” Mayer said. “I guarantee the 14 other teams in this field are going to make NCAA postseason play.”

Senior David Mills notched another top-25 finish, closing the weekend tied for 12th at eight-over par 218. Sophomore Max Kollin and freshman Will Seger tied for 29th at 11-over par 221. Junior Nicholas Grubnich and sophomore Sean Stone shot 225 and 235, respectively.

With one round of play in the books, Alabama proved why they arrived as the team to beat.

They promptly hopped out to a 10-stroke advantage over second-place Oklahoma State. The team also carded two of the four scores in the sixties in the first round of the tournament, including the best score of the day, a three-under par 67 by Trey Mullinax.

The Hoosiers fell to 11th place out of 15 teams, 18 strokes behind the leader. Seger, in his second collegiate tournament, led the way for the team with the fifth lowest score of the first day.
 
“As a freshman, doing that in this kind of field is promising,” Mayer said.

Seger said he is starting to gain confidence in every facet of his game, especially his ball striking and short game.

On day two, the Hoosiers climbed into a tie for 10th place with a score of 31-over par 591. They improved their play as a whole with a cumulative score of 292, shedding seven strokes off their first round, 299. Mills shot an even-par 70, bettering his first round score by five strokes.

Despite the improvements, Alabama widened their lead over IU and the rest of the field. With a score of two-under par 558 through two days, they owned a 21 stroke edge over second place and a 33 stroke advantage over the Hoosiers.

Although fighting their way to the very top of the leaderboard may have been a stretch at this point, the Hoosiers sat only 12 strokes away from second place in a tightly bunched group.

On day three, IU repeated their second round performance with a group score of 292, leaving them in 11th place with a tournament total of 883. This left them 34 strokes back of Alabama at 849 and 11 strokes out of the top five. 

“We’re a little bit disappointed we didn’t jump a few more people down the stretch, but I think we all still look at it as an impressive week,” Seger said.

In the third round, Kollin provided the lowest score for the team, with a two-over par 72. Mills and Seger both shot three-over par 73, and Grubnich finished with a four-over 74.

Kollin said no one managed to put together the really low score they needed as a team in the final round. He said they need to get slightly less aggressive on tough pins.

“We need to start playing for par a little bit more and play to the center of the greens,” Kollin said.

Follow reporter Mike Nichols on Twitter @Mike_Nichols1.