COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Fighting Illini men's golf team, No. 18 nationally in the NCAA Collegiate Golf team rankings and 17th in the most recent GCAA Coaches Top-25 poll, tees off this week at Scioto Country Club for the 2024 Big Ten Men's Golf Championship.
The Orange and Blue are in search of their ninth consecutive conference title, their 14th in the last 15 league championships dating back to the 2008-09 season, and the program's 21st Big Ten crown overall.
THE SETTING
The 2024 Big Ten Men's Golf Championship is hosted at Scioto Country Club. Designed as the first 18-hole golf course in central Ohio by renowned Scottish-born architect Donald Ross, it later became the club where golf's greatest player, Jack Nicklaus, learned the game.
With the opening of the golf course in 1916, the club quickly gained national stature as a preeminent facility and a decade later hosted the 1926 U.S. Open Championship won by golfing legend Bobby Jones. This started the rich tournament tradition that Scioto enjoys as one of only five golf courses in the United States to have hosted five different major championships. The 1931 Ryder Cup, the 1950 PGA Championship, the 1968 U.S. Amateur, and the 1986 Senior U.S. Open each added to the tournament legacy and prestige of the Club. During its centennial year in 2016, the club again hosted the U.S. Senior Open, its sixth major championship held at Scioto.
The golf course has been acclaimed around the world as a strategic routing and a course that demands precise shot-making. The golf course was renovated in 2021 by Andrew Green to restore the original Donald Ross course that hosted the 1926 National Open and the 1931 Ryder Cup. Today, the course provides a great test to the finest players in the world. The USGA will return to Scioto for the 2026 U.S. Senior Open and the 2036 U.S. Amateur Championship.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT
The 54-hole tournament will be played over three days, Friday-Sunday, with 18 holes slated for each day. The low four scores will count towards the team score in each round. Tee times for Friday and Saturday begin at 9 a.m. ET/8 a.m. CT. Sunday's final round is scheduled to tee off beginning at 8 a.m. ET/7 a.m. CT and will be immediately followed by the awards ceremony.
THE FIELD
The field includes all 14 Big Ten men's golf programs. The Illini, No. 18 in the latest NCAA Men's Golf team rankings, are one of five top-50 ranked teams in the league, along with Purdue (28), Ohio State (37), Northwestern (43), and Indiana (45). Michigan State (73), Michigan (83), Rutgers (88), Wisconsin (89), and Minnesota (98) all rank in the top-100, followed by Iowa (109), Penn State (114), Nebraska (115), and Maryland (192).
FIGHTING ILLINI LINEUP
No. 1: Ryan Voois
No. 2: Max Herendeen
No. 3: Jackson Buchanan
No. 4: Ethan Wilson
No. 5: Piercen Hunt
Alternate: Timmy Crawford
ILLINI AT THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2024 Big Ten Men's Golf Championship marks the conference's 104th championship tournament dating back to 1920 and the 103rd for the Fighting Illini who have competed for the league title every year except for 1929 when only seven programs played in the event. No tournament was held in 2020.
Illinois ranks second all-time with 20 conference championships and sits in the lead spot in the Big Ten record book with 28 individual medalists (top-3 finishers). Illini have also captured the individual conference championship a Big Ten-record 21 times.
Under head coach Mike Small, the Illini have won 13 of the last 14 Big Ten Championships dating back to the 2008-09 season, including a conference-record eight straight. During the Small era, the Illini also won or shared the individual title for nine consecutive seasons between 2011 and 2019, the longest streak in Big Ten history.
Among members of the Illini lineup, senior Piercen Hunt and junior Jackson Buchanan are the only two with Big Ten Championship experience. Hunt was the alternate for the Illini at Crooked Stick in 2021 before he and Buchanan each debuted at the 2022 tourney, finishing T9th and T33rd, respectively, in the Illini's thrilling one-stroke victory. In 2023, at the rain-shortened event held at Galloway National Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., Buchanan finished tied for fifth, but was leading the event when play was halted midway through Round 3, and Hunt placed 13th to help the Illini to a 17-stroke victory.
Sophomore Ryan Voois, fresh of his first collegiate victory last weekend at the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate, was the team's alternate through the 2023 postseason, but will make his debut in the field at the Big Ten Championship along with the freshman duo of Max Herendeen and Ethan Wilson. Fifth-year senior Timmy Crawford, who transferred to Illinois this season after four years at Loyola Chicago, will serve as the team's alternate at Scioto.
1928 B1G CHAMPIONSHIP AT SCIOTO
The Big Ten Championship returns to Scioto Country Club for the first time in 96 years. The club previously hosted 1928 Big Ten Championship. Ohio State won the event on their home course with a four-man, 72-hole total of 1,323, followed by Michigan (1,348) in second place and Illinois (1,352) in third.
W.E. Carter was the top finisher for the Illini, placing seventh with a score of 334 (83-83-81-87), followed by C.M. Fish in ninth at 336 (85-84-82-85). L.R. Sutin shot a 339 (85-88-81-85) to finish 13th, and G.K. Whyte's 343 (84-83-88-88) tied for 15th in the 27-player field.
LIVE SCORING
Live scoring for the Big Ten Championship will be available on Golfstat.com. A recap and results will be posted on FightingIllini.com following each day of competition.
BIG MEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP ON BTN
Coverage of The Big Ten Men's Golf Championship is scheduled to air on Big Ten Network on Saturday, May 4, at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT.
UP NEXT
Following the Big Ten Championship, the Fighting Illini will await the selection of the 2024 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship field, which will be released as part of Golf Channel's College Central coverage on Wednesday, May 1 at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT.
NCAA Regionals are slated for May 13-15 at six sites: Birck Boilermaker Golf Course (West Lafayette, Ind.; host: Purdue), The Farms Golf Club (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; host: San Diego), Stanford Golf Course (Stanford, Calif.; host: Stanford), UNC Finley Golf Course (Chapel Hill, N.C.; host: North Carolina), University Club (Baton Rouge, La.; host: LSU), and The University of Texas Golf Club (Austin, Texas; host: Texas).
The NCAA National Championship will be played on the Champions Course at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., May 24-29. Illinois will be in search of the program's 15th NCAA Championship berth in the last 16 seasons dating back to 2008, their 17th trip under head coach Mike Small, and 30th overall in program history.
FOLLOW THE #ILLINI
For more Fighting Illini men's golf news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniMGolf on social media: X | Instagram | Facebook.
