Final Results

LAS VEGAS – Fighting Illini men's golf closed play at the Southern Highlands Collegiate on Tuesday, posting a team total 1-over par for the round. Junior Michael Feagles posted a bogey-free 65 (-7) to close the tournament and climb the leaderboard into sixth place.  Junior Bryan Baumgarten was also among team leaders at Southern Highlands Golf Club, finishing the tournament 2-under par and tied for 14th.

The Illini finished ninth in the tournament field on Tuesday with a total score 2-over par. Oklahoma took the tournament title with a team tally (-14), while Texas (-13) and Stanford (-10) rounded out the top three teams.

"Michael Feagles had a very solid day, with a great round of 7-under par," head coach Mike Small said. "A top-10 finish in this tournament is good playing; I'm proud of the way he got off to an aggressive start and maintained his momentum throughout the round. As a team, we were in a position to shoot a low team score and back up Michael, but we played very loose golf coming in and missed a great opportunity for a top-three finish."

Feagles continued to pick up momentum throughout the tournament in Las Vegas, entering the final round with a total score 1-over par.  He was hot from the start on Tuesday, making birdie on the first hole. He was 4-under par at the turn, and continued to play steady through the back nine. Feagles added three more birdies on the back nine, including consecutive birdies on the 13^th and 14^th holes. The final round score of 65 marks a season-low for the junior, and his 14 total birdies are the second-most in the tournament field.

Baumgarten also got off to a strong start on Tuesday, carding three birdies on the front nine which helped to negate late bogeys in the round. He shot 2-over par on Tuesday to close play at 2-under par in total.

Sophomore Brendan O'Reilly closed the tournament with a final round tally 3-over par, adding three birdies to Illinois' tally on Tuesday. He was 6-over par through three rounds and tied for 48^th individually.

Junior Giovanni Tadiotto shot 3-over par for Tuesday's final round, posting consecutive birdies on the seventh and eighth holes. He finished 59th overall. Freshman Tommy Kuhl closed the tournament at 11-over par to tie for 63rd.

THE TOURNAMENT

A three-day, 54-hole tournament, the Southern Highlands Collegiate was held on the Par 72, 7,510-yard course at Southern Highlands Golf Club. The 15 team field included several teams ranked among the top 25 in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll, including: No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 6 USC, No. 8 Texas, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 11 Auburn, No. 14 Pepperdine, No. 15 California, No. 19 Texas Tech and No. 25 Illinois as well as Florida, Stanford, TCU, UCF, UCLA and UNLV. Additionally, 14 of the 15 teams rank among the top 50 teams in the country according to Golfstat.

NEXT UP

Illinois will return to Champaign to prepare for the Tar Heel Collegiate, which is set for March 23-24 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The tournament is slated to be held on the Par 72, 7,223-yard track at UNC Finley Golf Course.

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