2009 Big Ten Match Play Bracket in PDF Format

Feb. 10, 2009

Champaign, Ill. - The biggest news in college golf this season has been the decision of the NCAA to decide its team champion with an eight-team match play event on the tournament's final two days. A 54-hole stroke play format will determine the individual champion with the top eight schools advancing to match play to crown the team titlist.

The Big Ten Conference will conduct a match-play tournament of its own this weekend at Heron Bay Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla. All 11 teams in the league will converge for a first of its kind team event.

"I have always been a proponent of match play in team golf," said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "I think it's a great way to showcase the teams. A lot of Big Ten coaches share that and we're starting to see the trend in the national finals."

Illinois is the top seed in the tournament and will face the winner of the Northwestern-Penn State match on Friday afternoon. The winner of the match meets the winner of fourth-seed Michigan and fifth-seed Iowa in the semifinals Saturday afternoon. The other two quarterfinal matches will be no. 2 Indiana vs. either no. 7 Minnesota or no. 10 Purdue and no. 3 Michigan State vs. either no. 6 Ohio State or no. 11 Wisconsin. The championship match is Saturday afternoon and will be shown on the Big Ten Network on March 1. The tournament also features a consolation bracket, so Illinois is guaranteed three matches this weekend.

"This event is good for us because we are going down in February as a conference and competing against ourselves," Small said. "This will allow us to shake the rust off in format that is actually going to expose more weaknesses in our game than stroke play. Being the number seed the first time out is kind of cool, but there are no guarantees in match play. There will be some upsets this weekend."

The Illini enter the week ranked fifth in the Golfstat Computer Rankings, eighth in Golfweek and sixth in the Golf World/Nike coaches' poll. Illinois won three of the five fall tournaments while finishing second in another. The Illini did so against stiff competition, posting 12 head-to-head victories over eight different ranked opponents on the season. Illinois posted its biggest in-season tournament title in some time with a win at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational. Illinois defeated seven ranked teams, including three of the top five teams nationally in that event. The Illini won three tournaments in a row for the first time in 20 years, also bettering the field at both the Windon Memorial and the D.A. Weibring Invitational.

All 11 Big Ten schools enter the 2009 spring season ranked in the top-80 in the nation, with seven of those schools in the top-50. No. 5 Illinois and No. 7 Indiana are the conference's top-10 representatives, followed by No. 35 Michigan State, No. 37 Michigan, No. 43 Iowa, No. 49 Ohio State, No. 50 Minnesota, No. 55 Northwestern, No. 58 Penn State, No. 67 Purdue and No. 80 Wisconsin.

Seven conference individuals from six different schools are ranked in the top-40 in the nation: No. 3 Jorge Campillo (Indiana), No. 15 Scott Langley (Illinois), No. 18 Vaughn Snyder (Ohio State), No. 24 Kevin Foley (Penn State), No. 26 David Lipsky (Northwestern), No. 27 Alex Martin (Indiana) and No. 39 Cole Peevler (Iowa). In addition, No. 55 Jack Newman of Michigan State won the 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links title and received an invitation to play in the 2009 Masters.

With the warm weather in Champaign, the players were able to get out on the course and play nine holes on Monday.

"We hit a lot of balls putted and chipped a lot," Small said of the past weeks of practice. "Our swings look good, our short game looks good, but now we need to get back to the art of playing golf and that's something we'll work on this week. This is going to give us a good gauge of where we're at right now."