Feb. 9, 2012
Big Ten Match Play Bracket | Live Scoring | Coach Small Interview
BRADENTON, Fla. - The Illinois men's golf team enters the Big Ten Match Play Championship as the top seed for the fourth season in a row. The event, which is also in its fourth year, features all 12 Big Ten schools and will be played from Feb. 10-11 at the par-72, 7,177-yard Concession Golf Club. The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus in association with Tony Jacklin and has been highly rated on numerous "best" lists, including the No. 4 spot in Golf Digest's list of the top courses in Florida.
"The goal is to win the event, but the origination of it was to give the teams some practice at match play since that is how the national champion is determined," head coach Mike Small said. "It also gives all the Big Ten teams a chance to knock the rust off after the winter and get some reps in before stroke play competition."
Top-seeded Illinois has a first round bye and will meet the winner of No. 8 Minnesota and No. 9 Michigan on Friday afternoon. The other quarterfinal match-ups are No. 4 Purdue vs. the winner of No. 5 Michigan State and No. 12 Nebraska, No. 2 Iowa vs. the winner of No. 7 Northwestern and No. 10 Penn State, and No. 3 Indiana vs. the winner of No. 6 Ohio State and No. 11 Wisconsin. Each team match is comprised of six individual matches, each playing for one team point. Teams are guaranteed at least three matches in either championship or consolation bracket competition.
"We are the number one seed because we are the highest team in the rankings, but there are some other teams close," Small said. "We have been the number one seed every year at the event but have yet to win it. Match play is a very fleeting game and a lot of intangibles and variables apply to it. We are looking forward to teeing it up one match at a time to see if we can win all three matches."
Seedings were based on the Golfstat computer rankings with four Big Ten teams ranked in the top 50 nationally - Illinois (19), Iowa (30), Indiana (31), Purdue (49). The Illini finished the fall season ranked 25th in the Golf World/Nike Coaches poll. The six-man Illinois team features Ben Hogan Award Watch List nominees senior Luke Guthrie and sophomore Thomas Pieters along with junior Mason Jacobs, redshirt sophomore Jonathan Hauter, junior Ross Frankenberg and freshman Brian Campbell.
The Illini, who have won three consecutive Big Ten Championships, are looking for improved results at the Big Ten Match Play event. In 2009, Illinois went 1-2, defeating Northwestern (4-2) in round one before dropping matches to Michigan (3.5-2.5) in the semifinal and to Michigan State (4-2) in the third-place match. In 2010, the Illini fell in the first round to ninth-seeded Purdue (3.5-2.5), but rebounded to win the consolation championship with victories over fifth-seeded Indiana (4-2) and third-seeded Michigan (4.5-1.5). Last season, the Orange and Blue again went 1-2, topping Minnesota (5-0-1) in the quarterfinal before losing a tiebreaker to Northwestern (3-3) in the semifinal and falling to Ohio State (3-2-1) in the third-place match.
The Big Ten Match Play Championship is filmed by the Big Ten Network and aired as a highlight show throughout the year beginning on Sunday, March 11.
