Indiana men’s golf will open up postseason play by competing in the Big Ten Championships this weekend at the Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Indiana.
The event comes during another quick turnaround for Indiana, who finished sixth in the Kepler Intercollegiate on April 23-24.
The Hoosiers will tee off with the Northwestern Wildcats and Michigan State Spartans in round one at approximately 9:45 a.m. Friday from the first tee box.
“I think we are very capable of making some noise,” head coach Mike Mayer said.
The Hoosiers’ lineup will consist of No. 1 sophomore Drew Salyers, No. 2 senior Mitch Davis, sophomore Clay Merchent, No. 4 fifth-year senior Ethan Shepherd and No. 5 senior Harry Reynolds. Fifth-year senior Evan Yakubov will travel with the team as a substitute.
In last year’s conference tournament, Indiana finished sixth as a team, and Shepherd led the team with a ninth-place individual finish overall.
The Hoosiers have won the Big Ten Championship eight times, earning their most recent title in 1998. Indiana has also finished second on 12 occasions, most recently in 2013.
Indiana has also produced eight individual winners in the event. Jorge Campillo was the last Hoosier to win back in 2008.
Indiana finds itself ranked at No. 60 in the latest GolfWeek rankings, and will be seeded sixth in the tournament. All five teams seeded ahead of the Hoosiers are ranked inside the top-50. Those teams are No. 19 Illinois, No. 25 Purdue, No. 29 Ohio State, No. 45 Michigan State and No. 46 Northwestern. All 14 Big Ten schools will be competing.
Indiana defeated Illinois at the Fighting Illini Invitational back in the fall, and finished ahead of both Purdue and Michigan State on multiple occasions this season. The Hoosiers beat the Boilermakers in the semifinals and the Spartans in the finals of the Big Ten Match Play Championship.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be played from Friday to Sunday. Live scoring will be available on Golfstat. Although the tournament won’t be televised live, it will be broadcast on tape delay on the Big Ten Network on Saturday, May 14 from 11 a.m. to noon.
“We are ready to go have some fun,” Mayer said. “I think we deserve to have some fun.”
