Forty strokes. That was the difference between good golf and great golf this weekend at Olympia Fields Country Club, IU Coach Mike Mayer said.
After finishing the first two rounds in the No. 10 spot, the Hoosiers slid down the leaderboard Sunday. When the last scorecard of the Fighting Illini Invitational was signed, the Hoosiers sat at 14th of 15 teams. They finished 45-over for the tournament. IU finished ahead of Army only.
Mayer attributed the Hoosiers’ position on the board not only to a weak finish but to the quality of the field. This weekend’s field included four top-5 teams and three Big Ten foes in Illinois, Purdue and Northwestern.
Illinois took the crown for the consecutive weekend after a win at Wolf Run last weekend. The Fighting Illini’s performance this weekend was reminiscent of Secretariat’s 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. They jumped out to an early six stroke lead against the field after the first round, and by the last furlong, they had sealed a dominant 13-stroke win.
“We played a good round of golf today,” Mayer said. “We just got beat by players that played a lot better than we did.”
Such is golf. You control your own destiny, he said. Mayer went on to note the Hoosiers’ troubles in finding a solid starting five thus far. Last week, senior Keegan Vea went 25-over. This week, junior Mathew Weber shot 35-over. IU’s top five will undoubtedly have a new look next weekend when they return to the Chicago area for Windon Memorial.
“You can’t succeed if you have four players and you need five players you can count on,” Mayer said. “We need to find that fifth spot.”
Despite the team’s overall woes, senior Andrew Havill finished tied for 19th, and junior Brendon Doyle followed close on Havill’s heels. Doyle finished in 21st with a solid 1-over final round. Havill said this weekend is not indicative of where the team is as a whole but that a B performance simply came at the wrong time against an A+ field.
“Being a senior I know that with college golf there are a lot of highs, and unfortunately there are a lot more lows than there are highs,” Havill said. “That’s just the way golf is, and I’ve been in the same position. I keep encouraging them, letting them know that even PGA Tour pros have off weeks and miss cuts and that it’s just one weekend. We’ll bounce right back next weekend.”
