AUGUSTA, Ga. – The 13th-ranked Fighting Illini men's golf team opened play at the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational on Saturday and holds a one-stroke lead at 11-under after two rounds of action at Forest Hills Golf Club.
Illinois – paced by a pair of top-10 individual scores from sophomore Max Herendeen and junior Ryan Voois – posted team rounds of 285 (-3) and 280 (-8) to build a slim advantage. Behind the Illini, No. 5 Oklahoma State (-10), No. 1 Texas (-9), No. 9 North Carolina (-8), and No. 39 Notre Dame (-7) all sit within striking distance heading into Sunday's finale.
"With the strength of this field, and a golf course that's very gettable, if you play from strength and hit the correct shots, good scores can be shot here, which we showed this afternoon," head coach Mike Small said. "So tomorrow, we need to pick up where we let off and play with the poise, conviction, and momentum that we built in Round 2. This morning we didn't have that. We made too many unforced errors. We cleaned a lot of them up this afternoon, but we still need to do a little more. If we do that, heading into tomorrow, we'll have a chance."
Herendeen set the tone early for the Illini, opening with a bogey-free 66 (-6) in Round 1 before carding a 69 (-3) in Round 2. He is tied for second at 9-under, just one shot off the lead held by Preston Stout of Oklahoma State.
Voois is tied for ninth at 2-under heading Round 3. After carding par on 17 holes with just one bogey for a 73 (+1) in Round 1, he picked up four strokes in Round 2 to match Herendeen with a 69 (-3) in the afternoon.
Senior Jackson Buchanan is the third Illini inside the top 20 after two rounds. He factored into the Illini scoring in both Rounds 1 and 2, carding back-to-back 72s to sit at even-par in a tie for 19th.
Sophomore Ethan Wilson and freshman Trey Marrion are tied for 30th and 58th, respectively heading into Sunday. Wilson opened with a 76, but stormed back with a 2-under 70 in Round 2 to climb 32 spots up the leaderboard. Marrion provided the Illini's fourth counting score in Round 1 with a 74 (+2), but slid down the leaderboard with a Round 2 tally of 76 (+4).
Round 3 is set to open with tee times beginning at 8 a.m. ET/7 a.m. CT. The Illini, grouped with Oklahoma State and Texas, are set to tee off beginning at 9:40 a.m. ET/8:40 a.m. CT. Live scoring is available via Golfstat.
