LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Illinois men's golf team, ranked No. 7 nationally by Golfstat, returns to the course this week to challenge a formidable field at the 2023 Southern Highlands Collegiate. The three-day event, hosted by UNLV, will be played Sunday through Tuesday, Feb. 26-28.
The Illini are coming off of their third team victory of the season in their last outing at the Hal Williams Collegiate in Mobile, Ala.
THE SETTING
The Southern Highlands Collegiate is hosted at the Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev. The course, co-designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and his son Robert Trent Jones, Jr., features the natural beauty of the desert, including mountainous terrain to create sweeping elevation changes, beautiful ponds and waterfalls, deep-faced bunkers and challenging, bent grass greens. The par-72 course spans 7,510 yards.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT
The 54-hole tournament will be a five-count-four format played over three days, with 18 holes slated for each day of competition. Tee times are set, off of Nos. 1 and 10, beginning daily at 11 a.m. CT/9 a.m. PT.
THE FIELD
The Southern Highlands Collegiate field includes 15 of the nation's top programs vying for the title, highlighted by eleven teams rated inside the top 50 by Golfstat. The No. 7 Fighting Illini are joined by No. 4 North Carolina, No. 8 Georgia Tech, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 11 Florida, 14 Pepperdine, No. 15 Texas A&M, No. 16 Texas, No. 25 San Diego State, No. 30 Georgia, and No. 41 TCU. The rest of the field is made up of SMU (53), New Mexico (61), UCF (76) and host UNLV (110).
FIGHTING ILLINI LINEUP
No. 1: Tommy Kuhl
No. 2: Jackson Buchanan
No. 3: Matthis Besard
No. 4: Adrien Dumont de Chassart
No. 5: Piercen Hunt
LIVE SCORING
Live scoring for the Southern Highlands Collegiate will be available on Golfstat.com. A Recap and results will be posted on FightingIllini.com following each day of play.
PGA TOUR EXEMPTION
The individual champion at the Southern Highlands Collegiate will earn an exemption into the 2022 Shriners Children's Open, Oct. 12-15, at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.
ILLINI AT THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS INTERCOLLEGIATE
The Illini previously competed at the Southern Highlands Collegiate five times from 2015 through 2019 before returning to the event for a sixth time last season. The team has finished in the top 10 each year, including the program's best finish at the 2015 event in which the Illini finished sixth behind a sixth-place individual finish at 6-under (210) from then-junior Charlie Danielson. Nick Hardy captured back-to-back individual top-10s at the event with a 10th-place finish as a junior in 2017 and a tie for seventh as a senior in 2018. Michael Feagles was the last Illini to capture a top-10 finish at the Southern Highlands Collegiate, placing sixth at the 2019 event.
Last year, the Illini finished eighth in the 15-team field, behind a tie for 13th from Tommy Kuhl who shot 72-69-68 for a 7-under 209. Kuhl was the only member of the current Illini roster that played in the event prior to last season; as a freshman in 2019, he carded rounds of 80-71-76 to finish to finish +11 in a tie for 63rd.
Adrien Dumont de Chasssart tied for 21st with a 212 (-4), while Piercen Hunt (221) and Jackson Buchanan (234) finished tied for 62nd and 83rd, respectively. Matthis Besard will tee off in the Southern Highlands for the first time in his collegiate career this weekend.
UP NEXT
The Illini travel to Tucson, Ariz., returning to desert golf to take on the field National Invitational Tournament hosted by the University of Arizona at Omni Tucson National Golf Club, March 17-18.
FOLLOW THE #ILLINI
For more Fighting Illini men's golf news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniMGolf on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.
