Hoosiers capture home invitational

The IU men’s golf team secured its first victory of the season this weekend in the NYX Hoosier Invitational on the IU Championship Golf Course.

The Hoosiers won the tournament for the second consecutive year.

IU was a shot back of Michigan going into Sunday’s final round but ran away from the field to win by 12 strokes.

Its combined score of 853 (+1) is the lowest of the season for IU.

“We accomplished what we wanted and just did it out there today,” IU Coach Mike Mayer said. “We played well today, and we knew if we played well we’d be damn hard to beat.”

Mayer said the key to victory this weekend was limiting mistakes. The Hoosiers played consistently well across the board — the highest score counted against IU’s total was a 74 (+3).

“I think we continue to get better,” he said. “We’re improving on little things. We’re not making as many basic mistakes, and we did a good job of that this tournament. We’re going to see if we can take that momentum going forward.”

All five Hoosier golfers placed in the top 20, and four of them finished in the top 10. Senior David Mills led the team and was the individual runner-up after shooting rounds of 70-70-71 for a tournament total of 211 (-2). It was Mills’ best finish of the year.

“It feels great to get a team win, first off,” he said. “Individually, I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t get the win, but second place is a good finish in this field.”

Freshman Will Seger finished two strokes back of Mills with rounds of 70-72-71 to finish at 213 (E) and earn a share of third place. He said the good performance by the rest of the team helped him golf well this weekend.

“We kept our foot on the gas all day,” Seger said. “You have to be accountable for your score and know that everyone else is counting on you. It also helps to know that someone has your back if you slip up.”

He said this season the team has had three good scores and two that were iffy, but the Hoosiers fixed that problem this tournament.

Junior Nicholas Grubnich also shot his best score of the season, propelled by a first round 69. He followed that with a 73 and 72 in the other rounds to wind up with a 214 (+1) and tied for fifth.

“What is gratifying is that we threw out a score of 73 today,” Mayer said. “And that means everybody’s in the equation. And that’s what enabled us to win.”

The other Hoosier golfers included sophomore Max Kollin and junior Andrew Fogg. Kollin finished with a 216 (+3) and tied for ninth, while Fogg shot a 220, earning him a share of 19th place.

“We needed this win,” Mayer said. “It’s hard to win a college tournament. Everything has to be going right for you. We needed this win, and it’s extremely gratifying.”

Next weekend the Hoosiers will travel to West Lafayette for the Boilermaker Invitational. Seger said the team will try to carry the momentum from this win into tournaments moving forward.

“I feel like this could kind of start something here,” Seger said. “I think we can make a run to finish the season.”