Sept. 17, 2008

What: Third Annual Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational presented by Srixon

Where: Olympia Fields North Course (7,157-yard, par 70), Olympia Fields, Ill.

When: Sept. 19-21, 2008. Tee times start at 8 a.m. each day

Admission: Free

Scoring: Five players compete for each team with the low four scores each round counting toward the team score

Results: Live scoring is available through fightingillini.com and golfstat.com

Team champions: Oklahoma State (2007), Duke (2006)

Individual champions: Rickie Fowler, Oklahoma State (2007), Niklas Lemke, Arizona State (2006)

2008 Field: No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Stanford, No. 11 Florida State, No. 12 Arizona State, No. 20 Indiana, No. 24 Texas, Central Florida, Duke, Illinois,Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue, SMU, Vanderbilt

Round 1 Tee Times in PDF Format

Olympia Fields, Ill. - This weekend marks the first really big tournament of the year in college golf - the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational presented by Srixon. The tournament gives those top teams in the country an early gauge of how they stack up.

The 54-hole tournament on one of the nation's top courses is a 54-hole event over three days - Sept. 19-21. Tee times start at 8 a.m. each day. Illinois will be playing from the tenth tee Friday with tee times from 8:40-9:12 am

Just how strong is the field? It includes three of the top four teams at last year's NCAA Championship (defending champion UCLA, no. 2 Stanford and no. 4 Oklahoma State) and five other teams that finished in the top 25 at last year's NCAA - Illinois and Arizona State (who tied for 17th), Texas (19), Indiana (21) and Penn State (25). It includes the worlds's no. 2 ranked amateur player and the consensus top player in collegiate golf in Oklahoma State's Rickie Fowler. Last year as a freshman, Fowler claimed his first ever collegiate tournament title at Olympia Fields and returns to defend his title. Oklahoma State is the defending team champion.

Golfweek's list of 10 Pre-Season First Team All-Americans includes four players who will compete this week at Olympia Fields - Fowler (no. 1), Stanford sophomore Sihwan Kim (no. 2), Indiana senior Jorge Campillo (no. 7) and UCLA senior Erik Flores (no. 8). Second teamers Lucas Lee of UCLA, Matthew Savage of Florida State and Kevin Tway of Oklahoma State join third teamers Charlie Holland of Texas, Jesper Kennegard of Arizona State, and Drew Kittleson of Florida State giving the tournament ten of the top 30 players in the country. Campillo tied for second at last year's NCAA Championship while Kim and Fowler tied for fourth.

The tournament has depth with five of top nine teams in this year's pre-season Golfweek rankings (no. 2 Oklahoma State, no. 3 UCLA, no. 5 Stanford, no. 8 Florida State, no. 9 Arizona State ) and eight of the top 30 teams in GolfWorld/Nike Golf's pre-season rankings - (no. 1 UCLA, no. 2 Oklahoma State, no. 5 Stanford, no. 11 Florida State, no. 12 Arizona State, no. 20 Indiana, no. 24 Texas and no. 28 Illinois)

The Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational has made its mark despite this being only the third year of the event.

"The golf course is the big attraction," said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "Olympia Fields is one of the great golf courses in America with a huge tradition of professional golf and major championships. It has evolved into one of the top college events because of that factor, the way the members treat the teams and the strength of field."

This will be the second tournament this season for Illinois, who finished second in the 14-team Wolf Run Invitational Sept. 13-14. The Illini had three players in the top 15 individually - sophomore Scott Langley (9th) and juniors Matt Hoffman and Zach Barlow (tied for 14th).

"We competed well the last day," Small said. "To finish second out of 14 teams, you can never look down on. If you can do that all season, you'll have a very good year. Individually and as a team, there are things we can improve on. We need to bring our competitiveness and our focus from the very first hole this week."

Langley, Barlow and Hoffman will be joined by sophomore Clayton Parkhill, who is making the line-up for the first time in his career, and sophomore Chris DeForest.

"Everyone on this team is capable of shooting a very low number for a round or tournament," Small said. "I believe anyone could do that this week. We'll get a chance to play against some of the best teams in the country again and showcase what we can do. While, you always want to play well in your own event, at the same time, it is just one of 12 events for us."

The 15 teams will compete on the Olympia Fields North Course, a 7,157-yard, par 70, ranked one of the top 50 courses in the country. It played host to the 2003 U.S. Open. Several of the holes traverse old farmland, but the strongest holes loop around ridges that also feature a serpentine creek that comes into play.

"With this golf course, you have to drive it extremely well," Small said. "The bunkers are very penal and the greens are going to be fast. You have to position your ball on the greens at the right spot and play from the fairways. If you are playing from the rough with these greens as fast as they are, it is going to be difficult."