WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The 11th-ranked Fighting Illini men's golf team closed out the Boilermaker Invitational on Sunday, surging four spots up the leaderboard into a tie for third with the lowest team score of the final round - a 5-under 279. The Illini's rise was led by a pair of strong closing scores of 68 (-3) and 67 (-4) by Jackson Buchanan (T3) and Max Herendeen (T13), respectively.
Illinois finished with a 54-hole tally of 842 (-10), closing out the regular season with a strong finish as the team now turns its attention to the postseason, opening Friday at the 2025 Big Ten Championship.
"It was good to see a strong finish today," head coach Mike Small said. "That's one of the cornerstones of our program, to always finish off tournaments strong and have a solid last round. That was pleasing to me to see that today. However, we are still having the same issues that we've had for a majority of the season where we're not clicking on all cylinders often enough, and our consistency is not there. We needed to have a better one today to win the tournament, but still our round was positive. We need to tidy things up and address the issues of mental and emotional consistency, consistent depth and solid fundamental golf throughout the entire lineup."
Buchanan's 68 capped a 54-hole tally of 205 (-8), two strokes off the pace of medalist Hunter Thomson of Michigan. The Dacula, Ga., native moved four spots up the player leaderboard to record the 11th top-three finish of his collegiate career. Teeing off on No. 7 to open Round 3, Buchanan quickly moved to 2-under with birdies on Holes 8 and 12. A bogey on 15 was offset just a few holes later by a birdie on 18. Following a bogey on No. 1, Jackson posted back-to-back birdies on Nos. 3 and 4 to close his week with 15 birdies – the No. 2 mark in the tournament.
Herendeen was the biggest mover of the day in the 90-player field, using his 4-under 67 to jump 33 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 13th. The sophomore has now recorded 16 top-15 finishes in his two years as an Illini, including three straight entering the postseason. He opened Round 3 with a bogey on No. 9, but responded with four birdies and an eagle, with just one other bogey, to tie for Sunday's lowest individual round.
Freshman Trey Marrion shot an even-par 71 to remain level for the weekend with a 54-hole total of 213, his lowest tournament score as an Illini. Marrion's effort moved him up eight spots into a tie for 23rd for his fifth top-25 finish of the season.
Junior Ryan Voois, and Sophomore Ethan Wilson each carded final rounds of 73 (+2). Voois tied for 37th at 215 (+2), while Wilson tied for 53rd at 218 (+5).
In the team race, the Illini finished six strokes behind Marquette (-16), and four shots off the pace of host Purdue (-14). The Orange and Blue were knotted with Michigan State at 10-under, while Indiana and Notre Dame rounded out the top five at 9-under.
On the individual side, Illini freshman Jake Birdwell went wire-to-wire in the field of 38 competitors who teed off at the adjacent Kampen Golf Course (Par 72 / 7,465 yards). Birdwell was the only player in the indy field to shoot under par for the weekend, rounds of 71-70-71 to finish 4-under-par.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Illini tee off April 25-27 at Baltimore Country Club in Baltimore, Md., for the 2025 Big Ten Men's Golf Championship. The Orange and Blue are in search of their 14th conference title in the last 16 league championships dating back to the 2008-09 season, and the 21st in program history.
