FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The No 12-ranked Illinois men's golf team carded the lowest team score of the day during Tuesday's second round of action at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, allowing the Fighting Illini to close the gap to within one stroke of host and tournament leader Arkansas heading into Wednesday's finale at Blessings Golf Club.
The Orange and Blue - led by a trio of Round 2 scores in the 60s from seniors Adrien Dumont de Chassart (67) and Tommy Kuhl (69), and sophomore Piercen Hunt (69) – posted a team total of 280 (-8), and jumped up from 8 strokes off the Razorbacks' pace following Monday's opening round.
"It was a solid day," head coach Mike Small said. "We had a lot of command of our games today. We drove it pretty well, we played well from tee to green, and we had good speed on the greens; the putts just didn't fall as much as they could have, so as a coach I was very happy with the day."
Dumont de Chassart was bogey-free during his second round, matching Kuhl for the team-lead with five birdies on the day, to turn in a season-low round and jump nine spots up the individual leaderboard into a tie for seventh place with a two-round total of 139 (-5).Â
"Adrien played very solid yesterday, but had those two big numbers; Today, he eliminated those two big numbers and that was the difference," added Small. "He had command of his game. It was just a solid, solid round, and I was proud of him for that."
He is one stroke off the pace of Hunt, who for the second-consecutive round, shot a career-best total of 69 (-3). Hunt (138) sits in a four-way tie for third place, four strokes behind 36-hole leader Luke Long (134) of Arkansas. Arizona's Chase Sienkiewicz is three back of Long's pace in solo second.
Kuhl's 69 in Round 2 also matches a season-best for the Morton, Illinois, native, and is just one stroke off his career-low. He began his day with a bogey on No. 1, but settled in to record five birdies and just one additional bogey the rest of the way. He moved up 10 spots on the leaderboard and is 2-under in a tie for 12th place heading into Round 3.
Junior Jerry Ji rounded out the scoring for the Illini in Round 2 with a 3-over 75. Ji, who opened with an even-par 72 on Monday, was again even through 13, but bogeyed Nos. 14, 17 and 18 to fall back into a tie for 26th at 3-over. Freshman Dylan Keating, playing in his first tournament in the Illini lineup, shot 7-over for the day and is 10-over through two rounds to sit in a 49th.
The Illini find themselves in a tight race atop the team leaderboard with 18 holes to play. Arkansas leads the field at 565, followed by Illinois (566), Ole Miss (567) and Tennessee (569). North Carolina (574) rounds out the top five heading into Round 3.
"Now tomorrow, we have to obviously reset," Small added. "And like everything we do, we'll try to make improvements on the things we could have done a little better today individually, and we'll be ready to compete tomorrow and pretend it's 0-0, because there are four or five teams that can win this thing."
The Illini tee off in Round 3 on Wednesday morning beginning at 10:45 a.m. CT. Live scoring will be available throughout the day on Golfstat.com. Wednesday's Round 3 will once again feature live coverage on GOLF Channel from 3-6 p.m. CT.
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