Sept. 15, 2011
Live Scoring | Coach Guthrie Interview | Jacobs Interview | Guthrie Interview
OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - With an elite field heading to the Olympia Fields Country Club, the No. 13 Illinois men's golf team will square off against some of the nation's best when it hosts the sixth annual Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational this weekend. Fifteen squads from across the country will descend upon the historic North Course from Sept. 16-18 and play 18 holes each day to complete the 54-hole event, which will feature the same tee and pin locations as the 2003 U.S Open held at Olympia Fields.
Ten of the competing teams were ranked in the Golf World/Nike Coaches preseason Top-25 poll -- No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Texas, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Duke, No. 9 Auburn, No. 12 Stanford, No. 13 Illinois, No. 20 Ohio State and No. 22 Augusta State, who is the two-time defending NCAA team champion. Three other squads, Arizona State, Florida State and Northwestern, received votes in the poll while Indiana and Notre Dame round out the field.
"It truly is one of the best fields that college golf will put together all season long," assistant coach Zach Guthrie said. "It is really exciting that we are able to host the event, and we are looking forward to heading up there this weekend. Our single focus will be to compete hard every round, and if we do that, we should be in contention for the win on Sunday."
According to Golfweek, five of the top eight individuals in the preseason rankings will be in action, including No. 6 Luke Guthrie from Illinois. Defending tournament champion Peter Uihlein of Oklahoma State leads the ranked individuals in the field at No. 2 followed by Stanford's Andrew Yun at No. 5, Auburn's Blayne Barber at No. 7 and Alabama's Cory Whitsett at No. 8.
Joining Guthrie in the Illini lineup for the weekend will be sophomore Thomas Pieters, who led the squad at the season-opening Northern Intercollegiate, junior Mason Jacobs, sophomore John Gullberg and redshirt sophomore Jonathan Hauter, who placed in the top-25 at the opener while competing as an individual. Guthrie, Pieters and Jacobs each have experience in the tournament, as they competed last season when the Illini finished eighth in a loaded field. The Orange and Blue last won the tournament in 2008.
"We are just getting back in the swing of things, but want to improve on our short game and eliminating the big numbers this weekend," Jacobs said. "We have a short fall season but will have an opportunity to get some wins against some good teams."
The par-70, 7,205-yard course will provide a tough test for the entire field, but the Illini know the course well after playing it each season and holding its team qualifying rounds there earlier this fall.
"It is a really difficult golf course, but we do have a lot of experience on it," Guthrie said. "Since it is a challenging course, it will give our guys a good chance to see where there games are early in the season."
Live scoring will be available on golfstat.com for all three rounds while full results and a recap of the tournament can be found on fightingillini.com.
