Men's golf team gets season underway in Illinois

The IU men’s golf team lost some key members and leaders from a team that, one year ago, ended the season ranked No. 33 in the nation.

The team has retooled and is looking to get back on course, IU Coach Mike Mayer said.

Twelve tournaments, including the Big Ten Championship, are on the schedule for the Hoosiers leading up to the NCAA Championships. Six of the events will take place in the fall.

“Our schedule is one of the strongest schedules we’ve had in recent years,” Mayer said. “This is going to be a challenge, and this tournament schedule will be in the top 25 (strength of schedule) in the country this year.”

The fall swing for the Hoosiers starts at the Northern Intercollegiate on Saturday at Rich Harvest Farms Golf Course in Sugar Grove, Ill. The Hoosiers finished third in this two-day event last season.

Indiana play host to the next stop of the season, the Wolf Run Intercollegiate, on Sept. 15-16 at the Wolf Run Golf Club in Zionsville, Ind. This is the first of four events the Hoosiers will play throughout the season in Indiana.

The Windon Memorial, the final two-day tournament of the fall half of the schedule, is Sept. 23-24 at the Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill. The Hoosiers have played this event in the past with success, tying for second in last year’s event.

September closes as the Hoosiers take part in the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational in Chicago. Mayer said the field for this event is as good as it gets in collegiate golf.

Next, the Hoosiers will travel to Florida for the Isleworth Collegiate from Oct. 21-23 in Windermere, Fla.. The fall segment of the schedule ends as the Hoosiers travel to Hawaii for the Princeville Warrior/Wave Invitational from Nov. 5-7.

Mayer said part of the scheduling process is to challenge the team by pitting it against some of the best competition in the nation and to set up the team to win matches so that it can make postseason tournaments.

“We just have to go out there and play our best,” junior David Mills said. “It really doesn’t matter what the other teams score because it is basically us against the course.

“If we keep doing what we do the best and keep the right mindset, the results will take care of themself.”

The Hoosiers will seek a couple men to step up as team leaders to replace those who graduated.

“Last year, we were led by two seniors that were clearly the cream of the crop in Chase Wright and David Erdy,” Mayer said.

Seniors Brandt Peaper and Corey Ziedonis, along with Mills, a 2011 All-Big Ten Championship golfer, are the three individuals Mayer said he will look to as leaders this year.

Mayer said the pressure of being a leader on a college team can affect some in a negative way. Others, such as Mills, can focus on the task at hand and shed the pressure.

“I am going out and just play golf and don’t really think about anything else,” Mills said.

A qualifying tournament that was used to determine the playing order for this weekend’s tournament concluded Monday.

“We had a very difficult seven-round qualifier,” Mayer said. “These qualifying rounds are grueling, and I was very pleased with the effort I saw. These were the six players who both conquered and survived the challenge.”

Of the six players Mayer eluded to, freshman Sean Stone will play as an individual. The other five — Mills , Peaper, Ziedonis, senior Michael McGee and junior Hugo Menendez — came out ahead in qualifying and will represent IU as a team.  

Stone, who is from Evansville,, is set to see his first action of his collegiate career after a successful high-school career in which he won the Indiana State High School Championship last year.

“I think this team has a chance to be very, very good, but I also think we have a lot of work to do,” Mayer said. “We will know a lot more about this current team after next week.”